oh no-pec..

iran and venezuela are wanting higher oil prices ?? you don't say...

OPEC in disarray over plunging oil prices

LONDON — The sharp drop in crude oil prices is testing OPEC's unity and viability.

A leading oil analyst said OPEC could be torn by a dispute between Saudi Arabia and its rivals over production levels.
The analyst, Neil McMahon, said Iran and its allies were pressing for a sharp cut in crude oil output ahead of OPEC's emergency session, scheduled for Nov. 18.

"Saudi Arabia has not joined the OPEC hawks, led by Venezuela and Iran, in calling for another supply cut, and we think we could be witnessing the beginning of the end for the organisation," Neil McMahon, a London-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, wrote in a report Oct. 11.

The price of oil has dropped by nearly 50 percent since July 2008.
Saudi Arabia has been the biggest oil exporter of the oil cartel and remains opposed to a production cut. McMahon said this could drive the price of oil to $60 per barrel.

"Such an outcome would likely create an untenable situation within OPEC and the potential for the organization to cease to work as one body," McMahon said.

xom and taxes

from carpe diem - i found this fascinating:

Exxon has already paid $19.828 billion in income taxes for 2008 (data here), and will probably pay almost $40 billion in income taxes this year (see graph above, income tax data for 1999-2007 taken from Exxon's annual reports). To put $40 billion of income taxes in perspective, it can be reasonably estimated that Exxon will pay more in income taxes this year (both here and outside the U.S.) than the entire bottom 50% of American individual taxpayers (about 67 million) will pay in income taxes this year.Using IRS tax data through 2005 (in Table 6, data here), and making reasonable projections for tax payments in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the bottom 50% of taxpayers will pay an estimated $34 billion in income taxes this year, and it will probably be the first time in U.S. history that a single corporation paid more in income taxes than the entire bottom 50% of U.S. taxpayers.