Case/Situation/Article I - Read the below situation to answer part (a) and (b)

Saudi Arabia Increases Oil Production

World leaders were very pleased when Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, announced in early July that his country would increase its crude oil production by 500,000 barrels per day. The half million barrel boost in daily production represents a two percent increase in the 25.4 million barrels per day currently produced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Saudi Arabia is one of fourteen member nations. The goal of the increased production is to decrease crude oil prices from $30 per barrel to $25 per barrel.

The Saudi announcement came as an unpleasant surprise for the other OPEC countries, who said they saw no reason to increase crude oil supplies at this time. Saudi Arabia, however, has taken a long-term view of the currently high energy prices. They fear that the high oil prices may cause consumers to shop for more fuel-efficient cars and begin to look for other ways to conserve energy, thus reducing future demand for petroleum. They also fear that higher oil prices might cause global inflation, higher interest rates, and recession, leading to slower growing economies and less demand for petroleum products.

Most economists predict that the Saudi increase will do little to decrease gas prices at the pump because most of the Saudi crude is "sour," which means that it has a high sulfur content. In the United States the gasoline refineries use "sweet" crude, which has a low-sulfur content. Several energy economists predicted that prices at the pump would decrease by around 11.5 cents per gallon. Although gasoline prices were over $2 per gallon in parts of the Midwest, the national average price in late June was $1.71 per gallon. The Saudi production increase should be helpful, however, in stabilizing the price of heating oil, which does use the high-sulfur crude.

(a) Using the information in the article, calculate the elasticity of demand for barrels of crude oil.

(b) Using the relationship between elasticity and total revenue explain why the other OPEC countries might oppose a production increase.