OPEC Cuts Production -- I Thought Saudi Liked $80 - $90 Oil -- More To This Than Meets The Eye

OPEC cut production and Libya hasn't even come back on line yet (Libya won't be to pre-war production levels for 15 months).

The headline, by the way, is a bit misleading: OPEC expects to gradually increase production, just not as much as originally forecast.

In a monthly report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it expected demand growth to drop to 1.1 million barrels per day -- 150,000 barrels per day fewer than its earlier forecasts.

OPEC also trimmed back its oil production outlook, saying it still expects output to increase, but by a slightly smaller 500,000 barrels per day in 2011 -- 80,000 barrels below its prior forecast.

It should be noted that the Bakken alone would cut into this delta (80,000 bopd) significantly, and then throw in the Eagle Ford, and Saudi's announcement to cut oil production is a non-story.

Having said that, the real story is the terrorist attack on a nuclear facility -- or whatever it was -- in France today (some confusion in early stories exactly what type of "nuclear facility" was hit, and I've been too busy to read more of that story).

Let's see: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Japanese tsunami, and now a French nuclear site. One would have to have some pretty bad news in a coal mine to top those stories and that ain't gonna happen.  Is Germany still on track to shut down all their nuclear reactors? As far as I know, yes.

Meanwhile, PEMEX will stay the course; it will not cut production.