May 16, 2008

Oil was at almost 10$... and heading south!

Sir, why are you distorting the truth? In a "Time to convene a summit on oil" May 16 you refer to the inexorable rise in the oil price from below 20$ to 126$ in less than a decade. If that had happened we would probably not seeing the current conditions but the fact is that late 1998 the price of oil got close to 10$ creating havoc for producers and investors alike (and for Venezuela bringing us chávez) and you know that as late as April 1999 even The Economist published an article arguing it was going for 5$ and FT must have echoed the same beliefs.
If an oil summit between the consumers and the oil extractors is to succeed then it has to build on the truth. And the truth should be spelled out without fear and without favour. Don't you think so?