Oil industry

[retrochoir]

In a world economy where there is an increased demand for oil, are the oil companies restricting supply to inflate prices, or are they already operating at full capacity?

[chazza]

They are restricting supply

[dasherman]

Personally I'd say it is a mixture of several things:-

Higher demand from emerging economies
Restricting supply
Insufficient refining capacity
Higher exploration costs

[retrochoir]

Thanks

[Lakitu]

The supply is resitricted. Gordon Brown was up here around 4 weeks ago in meetings with the Companies that pump the oil in an bid to get them to meet the demands. The Companies said they were willing to do that on the condition that the taxes they are charged by the Government was reduced we are charged extortionately at the moment), Gordon said he would not lower the tax, so he was promptly told that the amount of oil pumped would not be increased.

That's it in a nutshell.