PICKENS CALLS JAPAN-OPEC DEAL THREAT

The U.S. petroleum industry faces a threat if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries strikes an investment deal with Japan, warns T. Boone Pickens, general partner of Mesa Limited Partnership. Meantime, the Japanese Institute of Middle Eastern Economics, a Japanese think tank, called on Japan's government to take legislative steps to extend official development assistance to Persian Gulf nations. It urged the government to follow its own policy in securing Middle Eastern oil

Feb. 19, 1990

2 min read

Meantime, the Japanese Institute of Middle Eastern Economics, a Japanese think tank, called on Japan's government to take legislative steps to extend official development assistance to Persian Gulf nations. It urged the government to follow its own policy in securing Middle Eastern oil supplies as non-OPEC supplies are exhausted early next century.

OPEC is thought to require at least $60 billion in the next 5 years to increase its productive capacity enough to meet expected demand (OGJ, Feb. 12, p. 13).

Pickens made his comments at the monthly meeting of the American Petroleum Institute.

"OPEC has started talking to the Japanese, who want certain concessions in prices and a call for crude oil in return for investing in OPEC," he said. "Let me tell you that a cartel arrangement between OPEC and Japan cannot be good for the U.S. energy industry or for the American economy in general. We in the industry will have the responsibility of telling Washington that any deal made in expanding OPEC oil production-whether it be with the Japanese or anyone else-should be a deal in which American interests are protected."