SAUDIS SHOW LESS GREED AMONG OPEC NATIONS

In a bit of possible good news for American motorists, Saudi Arabian officials said last week that the Persian Gulf country could live with oil prices at a level about half the current market price.

Fellow members of OPEC, to no one's surprise, prefer keeping prices in the high-rent neighborhood and aren't very happy with the cost-cutting proposal from their most powerful partner.

At the time of the announcement, oil was selling between $22 and $28 a barrel, resulting in retail gasoline prices of more than $2 a gallon in some parts of the U.S.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil-producing nation, already plans to pump an additional half-million barrels onto the world market to lower top prices to $25. However, the country's former oil minister said a price of $15 a barrel would be "very healthy for the country in the long run."

The U.S. government, one of Saudi Arabia strongest allies, has been pressuring the Saudis to act to bring prices down. However, other OPEC nations are cool to the proposal. While Saudi Arabia, as one world's richest countries, could afford to sell its oil at much lower prices, many of its OPEC partners are relying on the high prices to rebuild struggling economies.

However, if Saudi Arabia takes the lead in boosting production, thus lowering prices, other OPEC nations would have to follow suit.

But don't count on that happening anytime soon. Most OPEC countries aren't keen about losing the huge windfall they are enjoying from the current market -- no matter how many Americans suffer sticker shock at the pumps.