Water-powered Fuel Cell Car: A technology that will render OPEC dispensable
OPEC’s Insatiable Appetite for Profit
By Alfredo G. Rosario
Opinion - The Manila Times
In a speech before the Asian-European Editors Forum in Bangkok last Friday, Sebastian Paust, executive director of the Asian Development Bank, quoted a World Bank report that 33 countries have been facing political and social unrest due to “skyrocketing” oil and food prices.
There were riots in 22 countries affected by the energy crisis, according to Paust. The Philippines, for one, is reeling from the increase in oil prices, causing the sale of rice and other prime commodities at prohibitive costs.
No end to the rise in oil prices seems to be in sight. Almost every day, the country’s oil companies announce an increase in the cost of gasoline, causing new rounds of increases in the price of consumer goods, utilities and services.
Economists say the price of gasoline is determined by market forces. But the world’s oil price today has broken all records. While the price hike has met the seemingly insatiable appetite of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for huge profits, it has disrupted the social and economic life of many nations.
The oil cartel was organized initially by Venezuela and four other nations around the Persian Gulf. Today, the OPEC has 13 members—Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. It has gone beyond its main goal to counteract falling oil prices when it brought a four-fold increase in the world price of the commodity in 1973 to 1974.
The continuing price increase has been causing a chronic inflation that has worsened over the years, affecting many nations around the world. [...]
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Read also: New Fuel Cell System 'Generates Electricity with Only Water, Air'
There were riots in 22 countries affected by the energy crisis, according to Paust. The Philippines, for one, is reeling from the increase in oil prices, causing the sale of rice and other prime commodities at prohibitive costs.
No end to the rise in oil prices seems to be in sight. Almost every day, the country’s oil companies announce an increase in the cost of gasoline, causing new rounds of increases in the price of consumer goods, utilities and services.
Economists say the price of gasoline is determined by market forces. But the world’s oil price today has broken all records. While the price hike has met the seemingly insatiable appetite of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for huge profits, it has disrupted the social and economic life of many nations.
The oil cartel was organized initially by Venezuela and four other nations around the Persian Gulf. Today, the OPEC has 13 members—Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. It has gone beyond its main goal to counteract falling oil prices when it brought a four-fold increase in the world price of the commodity in 1973 to 1974.
The continuing price increase has been causing a chronic inflation that has worsened over the years, affecting many nations around the world. [...]
Click here to read full text.
Read also: New Fuel Cell System 'Generates Electricity with Only Water, Air'
