Quote from razorack:
Look back to 97 when oil hit $12 barrel. that was due to growth slowing not production increasing.
Wrong! OPEC increased production by 2.5mbpd in December '97 just as Asian demand was getting clobbered. It was a mistake they haven't quickly forgotten. Still, a few production cuts later and oil was back in their price band.
Today, the situation is very different. OPEC is pumping flat out. They're talking about bumping quotas 500kbpd but at these prices nobody's paying attention to quotas anyway. Even the Saudis are telling the market they can't do anything about the supply situation.
Martin