All Posts Tagged With: "opec"
World Biofuel Leaders to OPEC: Who Are You Trying to Kid?
The world biofuels industry today issued a sharp rebuke to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its president, Chakib Khelil, today in the pages of the Financial Times.
Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 16, 2008 — The world biofuels industry today issued a sharp rebuke to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its president, Chakib Khelil, today in the pages of the Financial Times. In a full page ad, the biofuel industries of Brazil, Canada, Europe and the United States took the oil cartel to task for outrageous, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims about the role of ethanol in world oil markets. The biofuel trade associations’ ad pointed out the very real competition biofuels is proving to be for oil producers.
“Efforts to obfuscate and mislead the public about biofuels will do nothing to alleviate the energy crisis gripping the world. We realize that biofuels may be reducing your windfall profits. But, perhaps, the time for OPEC to face some competition has finally arrived,” the groups wrote.
Biofuels industry challenges OPEC view in FT advertisement
Written by Giles Clark, London
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
The world biofuels industry today (16th July) issued a sharp rebuke to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its president, Chakib Khelil, in the pages of the Financial Times. In a full page advertisement, the biofuel industries of Brazil, Canada, Europe and the United States took the oil cartel to task for what they say are outrageous, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims about the role of ethanol in world oil markets.
“Efforts to obfuscate and mislead the public about biofuels will do nothing to alleviate the energy crisis gripping the world. We realize that biofuels may be reducing your windfall profits. But, perhaps, the time for OPEC to face some competition has finally arrived,” the groups wrote.
The groups –- the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA), the European Bioethanol Fuel Associations, the Brazilian Sugarcane and Ethanol Industry Association (UNICA) and the US Renewable Fuels Association – were answering the charges by OPEC that ethanol was in part responsible for the soaring price of crude oil, a price that will fetch OPEC nations more than $1.2 trillion dollars this year alone.
Disinformation Age
OPEC lies, the SUV dies.
By Clifford D. May
The folks over at OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, must think we’re pretty stupid. The other day, Chakib Khelil, the current OPEC president, asserted that “the intrusion of bioethanol on the market” is responsible for 40 percent of recent increases in the price of oil.
Now how exactly would that work? How does growing sugarcane in Brazil or corn in Iowa push up the price of oil sucked from holes in the ground in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela? If we roasted the corn and put the sugar in coffee — instead of making it into alcohol fuels — would oil prices go up less?
And if mixing a little ethanol in with gasoline has caused much of oil’s latest price rise, does it follow that replacing oil entirely with alternative fuels would result in even higher oil prices? By that logic, if everyone switched from Coca Cola to Kool-Aid, the price of a bottle of Coke would go up rather than down. (And if you believe that, “drinking the Kool-Aid” might be an apt description for what you’ve been up to.)
Look Whose Blaming Ethanol Now!
by Gary Truitt
This reminds me of the story of the adolescent who was charged with killing both his parents and then asked the judge for mercy because he was an orphan.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil has a new culprit for the rising cost of oil–ethanol. Mr. Khelil says about 40% of the recent rise in oil prices can be chalked up to ethanol, which accounts for about 1% of the world’s transportation fuel. The other 60%, apparently, is due to a weak dollar and “geopolitical worries.” The problem: OPEC’s boss doesn’t lay out the logic explaining why ethanol blended into gasoline is to blame for high oil prices.
The world ethanol industry was quick to respond to this nonsense.
Alternative energy now going after OPEC
In Response to: Why Thursday May Be a Big Day for Wind Power
by Joseph Ratner
In addition to wind, other alternative energy interest appear to getting feisty and are even standing up to big oil this week.
A coalition of international biofuels organizations appear to have launched an attack on the oil industry cartel OPEC. In an open letter to OPEC president Chakib Khelil published in today’s Financial Times, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, European BioEthanol Fuel Association, Sugarcane Industry Association and the Renewable Fuels Association accuse the oil cartel of spreading false claims about ethanol and biofuels to protect their monopolistic hold on world energy supplies and further increase their profits linking to skyrocketing global oil prices.
High Oil Prices? Blame Ethanol, OPEC Says
By: Keith Johnson (Wall Street Journal)
Ethanol is on the ropes because of the food versus fuel debate, but now a new heavyweight just stepped into the ring and this one has got some really big guns.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil has a new culprit for the rising cost of oil–ethanol. Mr. Khelil says about 40% of the recent rise in oil prices can be chalked up to ethanol, which accounts for about 1% of the world’s transportation fuel. The other 60%, apparently, is due to a weak dollar and “geopolitical worries.” The problem: OPEC’s boss doesn’t lay out the logic explaining why ethanol blended into gasoline is to blame for high oil prices.
Why ethanol falls afoul of big oil producers and oil companies is easier to explain. Oil companies don’t want to be forced to shell out for a whole new infrastructure for ethanol, from pipelines to special gas pumps. And ethanol blends in gasoline do make gas supplies go further–not good news for producers at a time when high prices are already starting to dent demand for gasoline, in the U.S. at least.
Big Ethanol is striking back. The world’s four largest ethanol lobbies, The U.S. Renewable Fuels Association, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, the European Bioethanol Association, and Brazil’s Sugarcane Industry Association joined forces in a full page open letter to Mr. Khelil published in the Financial Times on Wednesday.