Reportedly fed up with the posturings of Iran's oil minister and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Saudia Arabia has walked out of OPEC meetings and declared that it will increase production in order to meet the world's demands, instead of the world having to meet the demands of OPEC.  Aside from Iran and Venezuela, OPEC had intended to keep production low during the northern hemisphere's winter months, increasing oil's prices, and Russia wanted to use a lower oil supply to "punish" the U.S. and E.U.  Saudi Arabia's decision may also have been influenced by competition from a new oil player, Brazil, which recenty discovered what may be the world's largest oil fields in its territory.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/09/11/the-death-of-opec.aspx?GT1=33009