As prices have recently touched lows of $33.20 per barrel, inexpensive oil has caused severe problems for Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Chavez just invited oil companies Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) and Total S.A. (NYSE: TOT) back into the country. And Ahmadinejad is fighting re-election troubles caused by a government used to surpluses and excess cash.

Apparently inefficient state-run energy companies can’t squeeze out profits like the professionals. And when they aren’t screwing production up, Russia has proven that it can simultaneously show the world it’s a bully – in addition to cutting off it’s income stream.

And things certainly don’t seem to be getting any better for these three. OPEC just released its 2009 demand forecast that spells out a dismal outlook for the coming year. But it’s not just low demand.

Oil inventories are at all time highs, “contango” opportunities abound, and OPEC hasn’t cut production anywhere near to where it needs to be to level out prices. And even if it did, the “bad boys,” mentioned above, would still be pumping it out at full speed to meet their obligations.

Lets fact it, oil could be down for much longer than they expect.

Source: Oil – U.S. State Department’s Newest Ally