OPEC Currency Vote Results????????

Anyone have any info on this major and udnerstaed event from yesterday?

Fopr those who dont know, yesterday was the OPEC conference voting on whether to change oil currency from the dollar to the Euro. This is a MAJOR event that nothing in the media has even been said about.

I have been looking in search engines, but all i can find are old OPEC meetinsg from years ago.

Anyone know if the results have been let out yet? Anyone have any clue whats going on?

No information yet. To be honest, I have not seen anything regarding it, I just heard that was the date on the radio a couple of weeks ago.

If anyone finds any info, please post.

Of course, if the vote was taken and it went against US interests, we'll probably find out soon enough the hard way...

Looks to me that it didn't happen. I can't find anything on it. Still looking......

"For General questions or comments regarding the content in OPEC Online, please fill out the form below and submit it to the PR and Information Department. We shall endeavour to send you a prompt response."

www.opec.org...

Very interesting....

When I left work less than 2 hours ago, this thread had barely a dozen views... now, 417???

Someone is VERY interested in this thread... and we havent really mentioned anything in it...

Hmmmmm, maybe it just happens to be the page the scumbag hacker decided to target for the DOS attack over the last two or so hours?

----or-----

We might actually be on to something


I would guess the latter but hey, this is a conspiracy site right?

Considering the abnormal interest in this thread, I would say it might be a good idea to find out exactly what happened at that conference...

There is NOTHING in ANY media showing that the conference even happened.
I checked:
All major US media (no surprise really)
BBC
China
Russia
Mid East
Australia

Noone has even the slightest mention of it even happening .

One would think that a meeting of this import would qualify as news somewhere. I'll keep looking though.

On a side note, I'm still looking for more news sites so if you have any that are somewhat credible I would like the links

Closest I have found so far:

126th (Extraordinary) Meeting of the OPEC Conference
OPEC 31 July 2003, press release No 11/2003
The 126th (Extraordinary) Meeting of the Conference of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) convened in Vienna, Austria, on 31 July 2003, under the Chairmanship of its President, HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar and Head of its Delegation.

The Conference welcomed the Minister of Petroleum of Egypt and the Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources of the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as high-level representatives from Angola, the Sultanate of Oman, and the Russian Federation, whose presence at the Meeting is seen as renewed confirmation of these countries' solidarity with and support for the objectives of the Organization.

The Conference considered the report of the Ministerial Monitoring Sub-Committee, and once again recorded its appreciation of the Sub-Committee's efforts on behalf of the Organization.

Having reviewed the current oil market situation, as well as supply/demand prospects for the remainder of the year, the Conference noted that the market is stable and well supplied, and that prices have remained within agreed levels.

Prospects for the fourth quarter of 2003 and for 2004, however, indicate that estimated demand growth is less than the expected increase in supplies.

The Conference, therefore, decided to maintain currently agreed production levels until its next Meeting, emphasizing at the same time the need for continued vigilance, careful monitoring and analysis of the market for the balance of 2003 and 2004.

The Conference renewed its standing call on other oil producers/exporters to cooperate with OPEC Member Countries in their endeavours to maintain market stability in the interests of all concerned.

The Conference reaffirmed the date of 24 September 2003 for its next Ordinary Meeting.

The Conference also expressed its appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Austria and to the authorities of the City of Vienna for their warm hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for the Meeting.


www.sis-verlag.de...

Apparently it was scheduled for Sept 24, 2003...

For those interested in exactly what such a currency conversion would cause, read this:

There is though one major obstacle to this happening: oil. Oil is not just by far the most important commodity traded internationally, it is the lifeblood of all modern industrialised economies. If you don't have oil, you have to buy it. And if you want to buy oil on the international markets, you usually have to have dollars. Until recently all OPEC countries agreed to sell their oil for dollars only. So long as this remained the case, the euro was unlikely to become the major reserve currency: there is not a lot of point in stockpiling euros if every time you need to buy oil you have to change them into dollars. This arrangement also meant that the US effectively part-controlled the entire world oil market: you could only buy oil if you had dollars, and only one country had the right to print dollars - the US.

If on the other hand OPEC were to decide to accept euros only for its oil (assuming for a moment it were allowed to make this decision), then American economic dominance would be over. Not only would Europe not need as many dollars anymore, but Japan which imports over 80% of its oil from the Middle East would think it wise to convert a large portion of its dollar assets to euro assets (Japan is the major subsidiser of the US because it holds so many dollar investments). The US on the other hand, being the world's largest oil importer would have to run a trade surplus to acquire euros. The conversion from trade deficit to trade surplus would have to be achieved at a time when its property and stock market prices were collapsing and its domestic supplies of oil and gas were contracting. It would be a very painful conversion.

So far only one OPEC country has dared switch to the euro: Iraq, in November 2002,3. There is little doubt that this was a deliberate attempt by Saddam to strike back at the US, but in economic terms it has also turned out to have been a huge success: at the time of Iraq's conversion the euro was worth around 83 US cents but it is now worth over $1.05. There may however be other consequences to this decision.

One other OPEC country has been talking publicly about possible conversion to the euro since 1999: Iran2,4, a country which has since been included in the George W. Bush's 'axis of evil'.

A third OPEC country which has recently fallen out with the US government is Venezuela and it too has been showing disloyalty to the dollar. Under Hugo Chavez's rule, Venezuela has established barter deals for trading its oil with 12 Latin American countries as well as Cuba. This means that the US is missing out on its usual subsidy and might help explain the American wish to see the back of Chavez. At the OPEC summit in September 2000, Chavez delivered to the OPEC heads of state the report of the 'International Seminar on the Future of Energy', a conference called by Chavez earlier that year to examine the future supplies of both fossil and renewable energies. One of the two key recommendations of the report was that 'OPEC take advantage of high-tech electronic barter and bi-lateral exchanges of its oil with its developing country customers'5, i.e. OPEC should avoid using both the dollar and the euro for many transactions.

www.feasta.org...

As a bit of support to DR's last post I found this on BBC.

Venezuela: War threatens Opec

The vice-president of Venezuela, Jose Vicente Rangel, has accused the United States and Britain of using the war against Iraq as a way of pressuring the oil producers' organisation, Opec.
Mr Rangel said the war posed a threat to the interests of Opec, which includes Venezuela - its only Latin American member nation.

He said that if the US and Britain won the war, they would seek to exploit Iraq's vast oil reserves - the second largest in the world.

Mr Rangel said the war against Iraq contravened international law and was a blow to the authority of the United Nations.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

Looks to me they are a bit nervous about the U.S. (being the largest petrolium consumer in the world)

Where the hell is my fuel cell car?!?!?!?!?

The reason this meeting is so hush hush, is to keep those who may wish ill upon the assembled. Who happen to hold offices of high repute, among those on the world stage. The media would have been told not to publish this as a redirectional tactic to keep the public in the fog...a very much overused and little known trick in the propaganda field.

I cannot find any references to this meeting other than a suspected decision on production caps. However, considering that this meeting IS so low key, I wonder if it is a defensive measure based on the likely vote?

OPEC Conferences are never held "in secret" though they are by no means public. There is no reason for that to occur.

24 September looks accurate enough for me.

Next, secret U.N. meetings, secret G8 meetings and secret Bildeberg meetings!

(J/K on the last one).

I don't think so. I would go with your original feelings on this, DR. The U.S. would NEVER allow such a decision stand. We would be bombing S.A. before the meeting even ended if they came to that decision.
As I said in my last post, the U.S. (Pentagon specifically) is the largest consumer of petrolium on the planet. I can't imagine OPEC making such a decision for financial purposes, maybe political but I doubt it.

I wonder if I would have any luck emailing the PR on the OPEC site. The fact that nothing in the news has been stated about this MAJOR event is rather suspect.

I was rather surprised the amount of View on this thread too, especially since it wasnt informative, simply asking a question.

This silence about the vote is VERY curious.

Unless MA is right, it isnt going to occur till Sep 24? Pushed the date up a bit? For what...to prepare....

I'll be interested to see if there is any mention at all in the media. I'll really be interested in what Bush says the odds are of the vote going in our favor. If he says anything at all. Maybe they really are scared...

If they're scared, what should people in the US be?

Do you think the War has done enough for OPEC to not change the currency? Or do you think it could still go through?

Well, people, I live in Vienna, Austria, the place where the OPEC is
I have been through several news sites, mainstream and alternative, there is no mention of any meeting, except, as already said here, a meeting end of september....

I too looked at this, back in another thread...the 24th was the date I saw as well....

I had heard of a meeting on the 8th (also from the radio, as well as another board member)...but I haven't seen/heard anything else on it...

I have a bad feeling about it though.....