OPEC

Easily missed amid the rising outcry over oil prices is the fact that they have only been skyrocketing in dollar terms. Priced in euros—or yen, or pounds sterling—the cost of a barrel of oil has risen much less over the past decade. At recent meetings of OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, ministers disputed whether oil should be sold in euros instead of dollars (WashPost), in light of the dollar’s recent decline. Officials from Venezuela, Iran, and Algeria called for a switch. But Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, both of which hold huge dollar reserves, urged caution, and the bloc concluded the meetings saying it would further study (FT) the impact of the falling dollar on its member states.

The "BRIC" nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - are all experiencing rising inflation and adopting similar measures to prevent prices of goods spiraling out of control, according to a report by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: A rare meeting of the heads of state of the OPEC countries ended here Sunday on a political note, with two leaders — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran — blaming the weakness of the United States dollar for high oil prices. Despite the best efforts of the host country, Saudi Arabia, to steer the meeting away from politics and promote OPEC's environmental concerns, the leaders of Venezuela and Iran let loose some show-stealing statements. "The dollar is in free fall, everyone should be worried about it," Chávez told reporters here. "The fall of the dollar is not the fall of the dollar — it's the fall of the American empire." During a news conference after the meeting, Ahmadinejad added: "The U.S. dollar has no economic value."

Opec countries meeting in Saudi Arabia clashed on Friday over the declaration to be made by leaders at this weekend’s summit, as Venezuela and Iran pushed for a statement on the impact of the weak dollar on the group’s revenues. The disagreement was revealed when a ministerial meeting Friday afternoon, supposed to be in closed session, was accidentally broadcast live to reporters.

The United States is the world’s biggest consumer and importer of oil. But the Chinese economic juggernaut is fast catching up with the US as an oil importer and is projected to have more cars than the US by the year 2020. The competition between the two countries for new sources of oil is going to be intense. With crude oil prices closing in on an all-time high of $ 100 a barrel this week and expected to breach that barrier within the next few days, the US’s interest in getting a hammerlock on Central Asia’s vast oil and gas reserves is likely to become greater than ever before.