2001-10-14 Fears, Again, of Oil Supplies at Risk

2001-10-14 Neela Banerjee New York Times \oil addiction\Osama bin Laden http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/business/fears-again-of-oil-supplies-at-risk.html Fears, Again, of Oil Supplies at Risk &ldquo;"If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he'd turn off the tap," said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. "He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel" -- about six times what it sells for now.&rdquo;  Alternate URL: NYT original link "If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he'd turn off the tap," said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. "He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel" -- about six times what it sells for now.

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If there is a serious disruption of oil supplies, it will probably not be in Venezuela or in the North Sea, but in the countries of the Persian Gulf. Those countries have taken the politically risky position of siding with the West, however quietly, in the campaign against Mr. bin Laden, thereby alienating many of their own citizens. And the proof of their support for the West is in the oil that OPEC nations continue to ship, recently forgoing a production cut even as they faced falling prices that rob them of revenue. As it turned out, of course, we didn't need Osama to raise the price of oil by a factor of six; we were able to do that all by ourselves.   