Oil prices will stunt recovery

The IEA also reported that OPEC posted the first "significant drop" in output in March in more than a year -- falling 190,000 barrels per day to 29 million barrels a day -- largely due to a near 10-percent drop in Iraqi output.

SHOOT: In South Africa they're talking about hiking water costs 18x; this in addition to continued fuel price increases and of cource electricity price hikes locked in for the next 3 years.

clipped from finance.yahoo.com "Ultimately, things might turn messy for producers if $80-100 (per barrel) is merely seen as the new $60-80 (per barrel), stunting economic recovery while prompting resurgent non-oil and non-OPEC supply investment" the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly oil market report. The IEA estimated global demand in 2010 would rise by 30,000 barrels a day in 2010 to 86.6 million barrels a day compared to last month's report. Demand for 2009 was revised down by 70,000 barrels to 84.9 million. The agency said OPEC kept its output targets unchanged last month largely on expectations that global oil demand will pick up later this year to absorb above-target production. The IEA said that operational problems and weather-related export disruptions at its southern terminals drove down Iraqi output by 220,000 barrels per day last month. But the agency noted that Iraq's exports hit a two-decade high of 2.07 million barrels a day in February, and total exports in March were tallied at 1.79 million.