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THERE is no pleasing oil traders. Or so King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia must think. No sooner had he pledged to pump more oil in a bid to lower the price, than the price began rising. On Tuesday June 24th it approached $138 a barrel.

There were two main reasons for the market's sceptical response. Saudi Arabia has only offered to boost its output by 200,000 barrels a day (b/d), about 0.2% of the world's current consumption of 87m b/d. Worse, its leaders had told various foreign grandees about their plans in the preceding weeks, so oil traders had already digested the news and were looking for more.

And even as Saudi Arabia's output rises, Nigeria's is falling. Insurgents in the country's oil-rich delta region have attacked a pipeline belonging to Chevron and an offshore oil platform owned by Royal Dutch Shell in recent days, forcing both firms to cut production. Some 300,000 b/d of output has been lost, outweighing Saudi Arabia's gesture.

This is just the sort of news that makes oil traders jumpy. The world's demand for oil has been growing faster than supply in recent years, leaving little spare capacity. So even a small loss of output can lead to a big leap in the price. The markets see potential disruptions around every corner: political tensions over Iran, say, or the impending hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico.

In theory, the world still has a little more spare capacity, in Saudi Arabia. The latest increase will raise the kingdom's output to 9.7m b/d, its highest level in decades. But it claims to be able to pump as much 11m b/d, and further expansions to that capacity are supposed to be ready imminently. If King Abdullah really wants to deflate the oil markets, he could try announcing an increase in output of a few million barrels a day.

It is hard to know why Saudi Arabia does not do so. Perhaps it is not as sympathetic to hard-pressed oil consumers as King Abdullah claims. Perhaps it is too scarred by the memories of the late 1990s, when oil prices fell low, government revenues plummeted, the economy stagnated, unemployed youths became restive and observers wondered whether the monarchy's days were numbered. Or perhaps it is struggling to raise production, as a result of the declining fecundity of its (and the world's) biggest field, Ghawar.

Whatever the reason, politicians such as Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister, who had been pinning their hopes on a grand gesture from oil producers, must look elsewhere for a means to lower the oil price. They are lashing out in all directions. Italy is imposing a “Robin Hood” tax on oil companies to finance schemes to help the poor cope with high energy prices. Barack Obama wants to do something similar in America.

John McCain, Mr Obama's rival for the presidency, wants to suspend America's relatively paltry tax on petrol, to secure lower prices for angry drivers. George Bush, the incumbent, wants Congress to let oil firms drill in areas of Alaska and coastal waters that are currently off-limits for environmental reasons. Congress sees more virtue in a crackdown on speculation in the oil markets. Joe Lieberman, a prominent senator, plans to hold hearings on the subject on Tuesday.

None of these ideas will do much good in the short term; most of them would be entirely counter-productive. Instead, politicians and drivers will have to wait for high prices to temper demand and stimulate extra supply. There are some signs of hope: demand is falling in the rich world and slowing in fast-growing parts of the developing world, such as China and the Middle East. Several governments have cut fuel subsidies in recent weeks, a move that should help to stifle demand. China's imports may also start to decline once its refineries have built up special stockpiles to see them through the Olympic games in Beijing.

On the supply side, the outlook is much less promising, as Nigeria's troubles show. There are some signs that stocks of more viscous oil are building, since it is harder (and less profitable) to refine. But to make the most of it, the world needs more refineries of a certain design, and those do not spring up overnight. Politicians are no more likely to tell voters that it will be a long, hard slog, however, than King Abdullah is to declare that Saudi Arabia will not do much to help.