If demand continues to be strong we are going to be struggling.

OPEC wants the maximum price they can sustain to meet their budgetary needs and investment plans, and keep their economies growing, while making sure that demand in the rest of the world keeps growing. The Saudis have hinted they believe that price was now between $50 and $60 a barrel.

If you're an international oil company and see this trend, it must be worrying.

If demand continues to be strong we are going to be struggling. OPEC appears to be taking the view that the risks are weighted more to the upside than the downside.

They've been wrong the last two years about what the second quarter fundamentals are going to look like. Fundamentally speaking, it's probably not a good ideal to pre-empt the market.

If you gave oil companies a choice between the tar sands in Canada or oil in Saudi Arabia, which do you think they'd choose?

OPEC wants to be perceived as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

High prices have given all producing countries a lot more leverage.