OPEC wants to be perceived as part of the solution, not part of the problem,

OPEC wants to be perceived as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

OPEC wants the maximum price they can sustain to meet their budgetary needs and investment plans, and keep their economies growing, while making sure that demand in the rest of the world keeps growing. The Saudis have hinted they believe that price was now between $50 and $60 a barrel.

If you gave oil companies a choice between the tar sands in Canada or oil in Saudi Arabia, which do you think they'd choose?

They've been wrong the last two years about what the second quarter fundamentals are going to look like. Fundamentally speaking, it's probably not a good ideal to pre-empt the market.

For the corps to persuade people that it is part of the solution and not part of the problem, it will have to change its behavior, ... Continuing the practice of spreading funding across a wide range of projects in the hopes of growing the corps program will not be an acceptable answer. We have to return to a situation where the Corps of Engineers is respected for its professional engineering judgment.