Brazil turned down an offer to join OPEC today, according to the Associated Press. Brazil is staying on the sidelines, saying that it is not a big enough exporter to consider joining the organziation. The country, which could have up to 80 billion barrels of reserves offshore, is keeping clear from the group for the time being. Which I say is fair enough. There's no rule saying that OPEC is the only organization that can represent oil-rich nations. Now, I doubt there will be any rival oil cartels coming into existence, there's just not that many oil producing countries in the world. Yet. Hey, these oil volumes are recent discoveries. Who knows where else there could be fields? Hey, who's to say that Micronesia isn't sitting on the world's largest oil field? We could end up having a another group calling themselves OPEN: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Nations. –Stephen Payne, Editor, Oil and Gas Investor This Week; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; spayne@hartenergy.com