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U.S. Congress Passes Legislation to Sue OPEC

05-22-2008

United States' House of Representatives starts a desperate measure to sue the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC for price fixing and behaving as an oil cartel. The members of the House overwhelmingly passed the legislation to open a case against OPEC members for setting artificial prices of the barrel of crude and limiting supplies.   Do the legislators have the power to sue the organization?

The act could trigger a retaliatory measures by OPEC countries against U.S. companies by punishing not to participate in oil exploration, production and service sectors.

Price of light crude was closed at $133.17 a barrel at New York market on Wednesday.

President Bush opposed the Bill and it has still to be passed by the Senate in order not to be vetoed.

Should the Senate approve the Bill, a new American task force would be created as part of the Justice Department to investigate energy markets to root out manipulation and unwarranted speculation.

The legislation passed yesterday would remove the present prohibition against pursuing antitrust actions against a sovereign country.

OPEC insisted yesterday that the rising cost of oil was not related to a shortage of demand but to the weakness of the US dollar and financial speculators.