Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Given the public’s ignorance about energy issues, and the entrenched interests that dominate the industry, many analysts are skeptical about the prospects for change. Jaffe believes that it will take a repeat of what happened in the seventies to force meaningful reforms.
The costs and benefits of America’s occupation of Iraq vary, according to proponents and opponents, except when it comes to oil exports.
When Bush seized Iraq – using Saddam as an excuse – it was the first step in an endgame for the remaining oil reserves necessary for the American way of life. According to Stan Doffish, this horrible logic may lead the Bush administration to attempt to ‘depopulate’ Asia
China’s search for oil to power its fast-growing economy has led it to various parts of the world where there are large oil reserves.
The forces driving the price of oil to $50.12 (U.S.) a barrel may wax and wane. Still, the quagmire that the industry is sinking into won’t blow over any time soon.
A troubled Washington faces urgent choices in Iraq. With exit no option, and victory nowhere in sight, the commandment of a second Bush administration may be: follow the oil.
Terrorists and insurgents are stepping up attacks on oil and gas operations overseas in an effort to disrupt jittery energy markets, destabilize governments and scare off foreign workers, analysts said.
Nigerian rebels fighting for sovereignty of the oil-producing Niger delta told oil companies in the world’s seventh largest exporter to shut production before they begin an “all-out war” on Oct. 1.
Crude oil futures on New York’s NYMEX have jumped 36 cents in electronic trading to the psychological $50 a barrel level, the highest in the 21 years oil futures have traded on the exchange, as Nigerian rebels decided an “all-out” war against the government starting October 1.
…as I got closer I noticed that the crane was not actually rebuilding anything – not one of the bombed-out government buildings that still lay in rubble all over the city, nor one of the many power lines that remained in twisted heaps even as the heat of summer was starting to bear down. No, the crane was hoisting a giant billboard to the top of a three-story building.
As the opinion polls move steadily in favour of President George W. Bush and the likelihood of a John Kerry presidency recedes, Democrats in the United States can take solace in two facts. If their man is not in the White House for the next four years, then they will not end up carrying the blame for the almost inevitable US defeat in Iraq – and they will not have to preside over the biggest financial crisis to hit the US since the Great Depression.
EARLY in the Gulf War II campaign, the Arab world’s most widely circulated view was that the Anglo-Saxons wanted to grab Iraqi oil. Many Iraqis still believe this, but the theory gets much less attention these days abroad: Insurgent attacks are making oilfields far less attractive to oil companies.
