Saudi Arabia rebuffs Bush on oil production (no need to they say)

AP ^ | AP

[old-and-old]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The White House said Friday that Saudi Arabia's leaders are making clear they see no reason to increase oil production until customers demand it.

President Bush was in the oil-rich country to appeal to King Abdullah for greater production to help halt rising gas prices in the United States.

But his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said Saudi officials stuck to their position that they already are meeting demand.

[Species8472]

Drilling ANWR would offset 10 years of saudi oil imports to the USA. And the money would not go into the hands of our enemies.

[Non-Sequitur]

A lame duck president would not be making this kind of trip just to "plead" for increased oil production.

This one would. He's trying to define his 'legacy'.

[MEGoody]

Pitting a man with actual combat experience in uniform against a man with street rally experience in Chicago, the choice will be a no-brainer.

I'm not so sure. Seems like an awful lot of the voters would rather have someone who will just pull out and let the terrorists have their way.

[RightWhale]

The Chinese leadership is at the site of the earthquake and working hard along with everybody else to save who they can and supply the survivors who are without food, water, and shelter. They care deeply.

[trumandogz]

[trumandogz]

That is not quite true.

[E. Cartman]

They[the Chinese leadership] care deeply.

I'm sure they do. (smirking cynically)

[trumandogz]

why is the oil at $125 then?

Because our currency is monopoly money.

Obviously, you understand economics and International Trade.

[bert]

.......Let them defend themselves ......

I believe this thread is part of a smokescreen carefully laid to mask the reason for the recent visits by Cheney and now President Bush to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The plans are now complete and W made the trip to seal the deal.

There is a war coming with Iran and Israel and the GCC led by Saudi arabia will participte in a very significant way.

in my lexicon, they are the coalition of the threatened.

[bert]

You are confusing Saudi crude with Venezulan crude.

Hugo’s stuff is the heavy one.

[bert]

.....a cover story to lay the groundwork for a hit on Iran....

See my post 89.

You are correct except I argue that the trip is not to lay groundwork, it is to seal the deals. The recent Cheney visit laid the groundwork and solidified the planning.

Somewhere in the region, there is an operational war room containing American, Israeli, Saudi, Qatari, Kuwati, Bahrani, UAEi and perhaps Omani officers. Iraqi? Jordanian?

W, that is the President of the United States, traveled to Israel and Saudi Arabia to meet with the other heads of state to solidify the agreements defining how thw war will take place. Only the Presidents/King face to face, eye to eye, can do the job of making war.

In my view, the war has been underway since the September attack in Syria. The current events in Lebanon are part and the missle fired from Gaza is certainly a part.

[PA Engineer]

Demand is being met.
The problem is not any of the usual causes mentioned. The True Cause is ignored or ridiculed.

Yep. Not to mention that in a "fungible" world market (we do not receive Saudi Oil) production increases in the US (Anwar Coastal Plane) would greatly impact the price of oil. The morons that claim that Anwar can only provide one year of "oil" to the US are completely ignorant of a couple percent production increase on the world energy market.

Another option to bring down world oil prices would be for the government to quit spending, and printing money excessively.

[Amendment10]

Given that we haven't learned from our mistakes concerning our reliance on foreign oil since the 1973 oil embargo, I'm keeping an eye on developments in biofuel production.

First, the bad news about ethanol. Ethanol fires are evidently harder to control than gasoline fires.

Ethanol fires hard to control 1
Ethanol fires hard to control 2

Hopefully, ways will be developed to make controlling ethanol fires easier.

On the brighter side concerning ethanol, there's now evidence that people might get as much, or more, bang per buck for their gas dollars with gas / ethanol mixtures.

Gas-competitive gas / ethanol mixtures

Also, I was surprised by the introduction of a machine (popularly known as a still) for making home-made ethanol.

EFuel100

In stark contrast to the 1700 gallons of water required to make one gallon of corn-based ethanol as indicated by the OP, the EFuel100 uses only 170 gallons of water to produce 35 gallons of ethanol In other words, the EFuel100 uses less than 1% as much water as corn ethanol, under five gallons, to produce one gallon of ethanol (corrections welcome).

But watch out for fines for violating biofuel regulations.

Fines for violating biofuel regulations

Also, progress is being made in the development of other non-corn ethanol production technologies as well.

Non-corn ethanol

Finally, I've also been hearing good things about biodiesel production but need to find some links.

[Species8472]

You are right -

Worried About Fuel Prices? ANWR Equals 30 Years of Saudi Oil

According to this it is 30 years worth!

[roses of sharon]

Saudi Arabia Says It Will Boost Oil Output in June (Update4)

By Janine Zacharia

May 16 (Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, will increase crude production next month in response to rising demand from its customers and a request by U.S. President George W. Bush to ease the strain of record prices.

The country will raise output by 300,000 barrels a day, or 3.3 percent, to 9.45 million barrels a day in June, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in Riyadh today, following a meeting between Bush and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.

``The president has asked the Saudis to produce oil to meet demand,’’ Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said in Riyadh after Naimi’s remarks. ``He was reassured by the king that they have increased production as the market demands.’’

Crude oil futures traded in New York rose to a record about one hour after Bush landed in Saudi Arabia today. They later settled at $126.29, an increase of $2.17, or 1.7 percent, though below the day’s high after the promise to boost production. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and the most influential member of OPEC.

``It’s just a token increase but it shows that the Saudis realize just how important it is for the president to not come back empty handed,’’ said Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut. ``This is about a lot more than oil. The special relationship between the countries is at stake.’’

Earlier today, before Naimi’s remarks, U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said the Saudi policy was to supply extra oil only if customers needed it.

Saudi Increase

``On May 10 we increased our response to our customers by 300,000 barrels because they asked for it,’’ al-Naimi said later. ``So our production for June will be 9.45 million barrels per day. This is the request of about 50 customers worldwide.’’

In another sign of cooperation, Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s state-run oil company, and U.S.-based ConocoPhillips said they will build and own a 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Yanbu on the Saudi Red Sea Coast, to be completed by 2013.

Oil prices have doubled in the past year on surging demand, supply disruptions in places such as Nigeria and commodity purchases by investors as a hedge against a weakening U.S. dollar. The price surge threatens to accelerate inflation and curb economic growth.

``The Saudis have engineered this to make it look like they’re doing something to help, but the market is rightfully skeptical,’’ said Robert Laughlin, a senior broker at MF Global Ltd. in London.

Filling the Gap

``As far as the U.S. is concerned, most of the 300,000 came from the U.S. and we responded to it on May 10,’’ al-Naimi said, referring to the kingdom’s production increase. Saudi Arabia is making up for output losses from other countries, such as Nigeria, Venezuela and Mexico, he said.

Production from the 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries fell by about 390,000 barrels a day in April, to 31.7 million barrels a day, largely because of declines in Nigeria, according to a monthly report yesterday from OPEC’s secretariat, which cited estimates from secondary sources.

Some Nigeria production was lost because of a strike at Exxon Mobil Corp.’s facilities and because of militant attacks on Royal Dutch Shell Plc pipelines. The West African nation is usually one of the largest crude suppliers to the U.S.

Saudi Production

The same OPEC report said Saudi Arabia’s April production was 9.02 million barrels a day, down 37,000 barrels a day from a month earlier. Nigeria’s output fell by 251,000 barrels a day. The Saudi supply increase will offset declines last month, MF Global’s Laughlin said.

The Saudi oil minister said Bush was satisfied ``because our response is positive. If you want to move more oil you need a buyer,’’ al-Naimi said at a press conference at the Saudi foreign ministry in Riyadh.

OPEC, which pumps more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, has kept output targets unchanged during its past three meetings, on March 5, Feb. 1 and Dec. 5.

``I don’t think there is a need for more oil’’ from OPEC, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said in a telephone interview. ``My customers aren’t asking for more oil.’’

The Qatari minister said recent reports from the International Energy Agency have shown reductions in demand forecasts and added that there is ``no need’’ for OPEC to meet before its next scheduled conference on Sept. 9.

He declined to comment on Saudi Arabia’s statement, saying it was a ``sovereign’’ decision.

Saudi Arabia plans to boost oil production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009, Naimi said, reiterating previous comments. OPEC spokeswoman Sally Jones declined to comment when contacted by phone today in Vienna.

To contact the reporters on this story: Janine Zacharia in Riyadh at jzacharia@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 16, 2008 16:39 EDT

[G8 Diplomat]

They’re running out and they don’t want to use up supply too quickly, maybe?

If the Rats would let us drill in ANWR this wouldn’t be as much of a problem....

[old-and-old]

that’s a good point. Their King has mentioned leaving some for the future generations (find oil; mark, seal and leave it). Once oil runs out...their sand isn’t worth much.