He was a co-founder and Managing Director at PFC Energy from 1984 to 1996.

"That should help on the margins," Mr. Qureshi of PFC Energy said.

"They have a perfect storm of problems feeding into each other," said Robert Murphy, an analyst at PFC Energy, a consulting firm in Washington.

"Anyone who is producing will benefit from higher prices," said George Beranek, an analyst at PFC Energy in Washington.

"They're not doing anything," said Roger Diwan, managing director of PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm.

PFC Energy publishes the magic number for all the OPEC nations.

PFC Energy, a consulting firm, estimates that production in the former Soviet Union will peak at 14 million barrels a day around 2012 and then decline.

PFC Energy estimated that 820,000 barrels a day of refining capacity was badly flooded and would remain without power for weeks.

"They will go ahead and produce the extra oil," said Roger Diwan, managing director at PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm.

"This is really about Iraq," said Roger Diwan, a managing director for PFC Energy, a consulting firm.