Middle East, The | Middle Eastern Oil Exporters Threaten the Global Economy

About the author: The Economist is a weekly newspaper on political, literary, and business events.

How much is a barrel of oil worth? In the Middle East, reserves can cost barely a dollar to lift out of the ground. Add a decent profit margin, and you still have an exceedingly modest price. Yet quite a bit of the world’s oil comes from far more expensive places. In 2000, the price averaged $27 a barrel.

OPEC’s Whims
It is not geology that determines the oil price, however, still less the free interplay of supply and demand. Mostly, it is the whims...

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