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Show Could Oil Prices Be Kept Down? Columnist Joseph Kraft charges that the recent rise in oil prices could have been prevented by the major American oil companies, and other western companies, and the U.S. Government. IN A recent column he alleged that the mild winter of 1974-75 and the recession reduced the demand for crude oil tremendously and that, as a result, the oil-producing countries coun-tries of OPEC this year secretly cut back production. The cutbacks ranged from ten or fifteen per cent to as much as forty percent for Saudi Arabia, Kraft reports. U.S. companies are contaminated con-taminated because they run the refineries in countries such as Saudi Arabia. They had to know what was going on, had to be going along with the Arab governments. PERHAPS THEY had no choice in countries like Saudi Arabia, where the government owns sixty per cent of Aramco, the conglomerate operating the oil industry. Of key importance is the question whether the State Department discouraged U.S. companies from fighting the cutback program. One U.S. company suggested sharp cuts in purchases from one country at a time, to force down oil prices. WHETHER this would have worked or the OPEC nations would have rallied to support the pressured is not known. No effort to take advantage of reduced demand was undertaken. under-taken. The recent ten per cent hike in oil prices will not be catastrophic catas-trophic for the United States. Currently the nation is enjoying enjoy-ing a surplus in its international interna-tional trade balance well over the two-billion-dollar difference this hike will cause. BUT THE longterm danger is very real, and the annual increase of the percentage of oil imported is disturbing. |