Business: Gloomy Oil View

Threats to precious crude

Virtually nothing is as vital to the Western world as secure oil supplies. Yet nothing seems so far from reach. By their failure to blunt the initiatives of OPEC or develop their own energy sources, the U.S. and other oil-importing nations have left themselves vulnerable to oil-fired crises that would be havoc-wreaking. They include internal revolutions in the Middle East, war over oil supplies and financial ruin for many countries.

This gloomy scenario is not the prognosis of some latter-day Spengler but of Walter Levy, 69, perhaps the world's best-known independent oil consultant. Warns Levy in the current issue...

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