Economy & Business - April 2005

Oil prices broke through US$57 a barrel in early April as speculators bet that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) would be unable to increase its production as much as had been expected. Opec's president, Kuwait's Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah, said that Opec would strain to produce the 30.3m bpd the market expects it to produce by the end of the year.