Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Saudi Arabia is the linchpin for world crude supplies, a key to setting prices and yet sitting on a political tinderbox due to internal dissent and having trouble securing itself against terrorism.
Oil prices are back in the headlines and likely to stay there, as the world’s global energy crosses new thresholds of increased demand, clashing politics and threats of terrorism.
Today, much of the world is convinced the Bush Administration did not wage war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein because of threat from weapons of mass destruction, nor from terror dangers. Still a puzzle, however, is why Washington would risk so much in terms of relations with its allies and the entire world, to occupy Iraq. There is compelling evidence that oil and geopolitics lie at the heart of the still-hidden reasons for the military action in Iraq.
Off the West African coast, the sharks are circling the sleepy “chocolate islands” of Sao Tome and Principe, eager to bite off slices of billions of dollars of hoped-for oil revenues.
The country’s oil consumption has doubled in the past decade, and China last year surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest user of petroleum — consuming about 6 million barrels a day.
Terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia yesterday prompted fresh oil price jitters before this week’s crucial meeting of OPEC oil producers aimed at increasing production.
Defense officials have recently spoken of the need for security and stability in the Gulf of Guinea, in part because of the growing number of offshore oil operations there.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants killed at least nine Saudis and seven foreigners in a string of attacks in an oil-industry city Saturday, then took hostages and fled with security forces in hot pursuit.
Richard Heinberg on peak oil’s rising recognition in the public sphere, Saudi Arabian reserves, the Shell/Royal Dutch shock, the petroleum plateau, the war on Iraq, 9/11 complicity, and U.S. party politics.
IN July 2002, the Pentagon’s Defence Policy Board was given a briefing by Laurent Murawiec of the Rand Institute. The advisory group of intellectuals and government officials heard Saudi Arabia described as the enemy of the United States. The Saudis were the “kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent”.
It powers the world’s economies … but unrest in Saudi is fuelling fears it could also destroy them
The U.S. energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, praised on Friday Russia’s plans to increase oil exports to America and highlighted natural gas as the next long-term U.S.- Russia joint energy project.
