The Oil Producing Countries

Iran is one of their key allies, one of the last independent oil producers in the region.

The first factor is the relationship between oil prices and economic growth in the oil producing countries.

54 of the 65 major oil producing nations have already peaked in production.

Second, there is the relationship between oil prices and the need for income diversification in the oil producing countries.

Finally, the data show that corruption is highest in oil and gas producing countries.

The oil producing countries have suffered a sudden reversal of fortune.

The dollar confusion encouraged the oil producers to form their (briefly) highly effective cartel, OPEC.

The same offer was extended to each of the world's key oil producing countries.

Other than in oil producing countries, development in West Asian countries has been disappointing.

The seizure of the oil producing town of Soyo and the diamond producing town of Cafunfo is obviously aimed at causing serious economic losses to the Government.

While oil exporting countries receive revenues in dollars (or their euro equivalent), they use different currencies to import goods and services from various countries.

It should be noted that the increase in energy prices was not limited to oil. Furthermore, oil producing countries were paying a high price for the technology which they were importing.

At the same time, oil hedging not only raises oil prices but results in huge reserves of cash in oil producing countries.

But the oil producers woes are not necessarily bad news.

China and India have been crisscrossing the globe making financially and politically costly deals to try to lock up the output of new oil producing countries.

First, the oil producing countries and China will continue to export substantially more than they import.

The increase in energy demand has already led to power shortages in the oil producing countries, which are expected to reduce exports this summer.

46. Over three quarters of the investment flows were directed to oil exporting countries, although the share of non oil producing countries has increased in recent years.

Although a recession in the developed world is now more or less inevitable, China, India, and some of the oil producing countries are in a very strong countertrend.

Developing land based producer States

Second, more investment is needed, particularly in low income countries, emerging markets, and oil producers (though less in China, the exception that proves the rule).

The issue of the responsibility of non State actors to respect minority rights was raised in regard to the activities of transnational corporations in the oil producing Niger Delta of Nigeria.

The PDP did, however, fend off challenge in the oil producing Niger Delta, President Goodluck Jonathan s home region.

Examples of rentier states include oil producing countries in the Middle East region including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Qatar as well as states such as Venezuela and Libya in Latin America and North Africa, all of whom are members of OPEC.

If that were not enough, Bush s threat of sanctions against Iran poses the risks of interruptions of supplies from one of the world s largest producers.

On the issue of the recent stress felt by oil importing countries, which were facing increasing balance of payment limitations, there could be greater cooperation between the oil producing and oil consuming countries.

Brunei Darussalam

The OPEC States were working to rectify that situation through greater investment in production and greater cooperation with other oil producing parties.

While oil exporting countries receive revenues in dollars (or their euro equivalent), they use different currencies to import goods and services from various countries. Any change in the exchange rate of the dollar affects the purchasing power of these countries, and therefore their real income.

Estimates of its newfound oil reserves place it in eighth place among oil producing nations, ahead of Nigeria as well as Brazil s rival for influence in Latin America,Venezuela.

The complementarities between countries rich in human resources and oil producing states should be harnessed, while energy derived investment must be diverted from the old markets of the West to the Gulf s troubled hinterland.

Rents from oil production impede reforms in the major exporting countries.

The observer for Nigeria acknowledged the existence of environmental problems in the oil producing area of Nigeria and presented information on measures taken to address that issue.

Section 3. MEASURES TO ASSIST DEVELOPING LAND BASED PRODUCER STATES

At the same time, however, purely bilateral negotiations between individual EU members and oil and gas producing countries weakens the member states bargaining power, as well as undermining Europe s geopolitical weight in world affairs.

The rhetoric of energy independence in the oil consuming countries makes the situation even worse the oil producing countries are building energy intensive industries to guarantee a market for their oil once consuming nations wean themselves of imported oil.

But Nigeria s mounting social and political problems reveal how violence and uncertainty in yet another major energy producer is driving foreign investors out and global oil prices up.

Given the current turmoil in the Middle East, the loss of Libyan and Yemeni oil, and increasing energy demand in the oil producing countries, any increase in Saudi oil exports, if any, would have a limited impact on the market.

Nor do they voice their concern that AFRICOM could be part of an American effort to exert control on West Africa s oil producing countries.

Moreover, as oil consuming countries aim for energy independence, producing countries will try to shield themselves by building energy intensive industries so they can export oil embedded in industrial products.

That would mean a catastrophic loss of state revenues for today s major Arab oil producing countries, rendering them highly vulnerable to the compounding consequences of existing water shortages, rapid demographic expansion, climate change, and declining crop yields.

Shell Oil?

As a result, West African oil producers will be earning an estimated 200 billion over the next decade, more than 10 times the sum Western countries allocate each year to the aid industry in the region.

One of the most plausible scenarios in response to calls by governments and politicians around the world to reduce or even eliminate dependence on oil is a relative decline in investment in additional production capacity in the oil producing countries.