Crude oil futures closed at $113.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange last night. Oil prices have increased 125 percent since early 2007. The price of gasoline has also risen, reaching a record price of $3.39 a gallon.
The next OPEC meeting which will consider new production targets is not scheduled until September. " Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, said last week that current oil prices had little to do with global supplies. I am not going to pull back; I’m not going to dump crude on the market, Mr. Naimi said last week, according to Reuters.
On Saturday, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia also said that new oil discoveries in the Kingdom would remain untapped to preserve the nation’s oil wealth for future generations, according to various reports."
