Posted on 06/21/2008 9:39:31 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Why Saudi Arabia's King Wants to Dampen Oil Prices By Bernhard Zand
Consumers aren't the only ones being hit by high oil prices. Now that the oil shock has reached producing countries, Saudi Arabia has called a crisis summit this weekend in an effort to find concerted solutions that could push barrel prices down.
Others would be overjoyed to be earning a $1 billion a day, and to have good reason to expect that number to climb to $2 billion a day next year.
But Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud seems less than thrilled these days, and the newly tense atmosphere at the Saudi Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry in Riyadh is a reflection of his mood. Early last week, the Saudi king decided that enough had been said about the oil price, and that it was time for action. He invited the world's petroleum elite to attend a meeting at his summer residence on the Red Sea, and this time he wants everyone on the list to attend: the heads of state and relevant cabinet ministers of oil-producing countries and the biggest oil consumers, the heads of ExxonMobil, Shell and Gazprom, and bankers from Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. The meeting, to be held at the Royal Palace on the Corniche in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, is scheduled for June 22.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
I work from home and my wife and stepson work about 1,000 feet away at the mall. The grocery store is maybe 2 miles down the street. Thank goodness, because my car is a diesel!
Yeah, Halliburton and Blackwater. LOL
That makes very little sense. All it would take is a few IED's detonated at key infrastructure points to prevent oil from getting to market. Ever wonder why the middle eastern members of OPEC can't build pipelines to send natural gas to markets in Europe? They are after all connected to Europe by land.
Also the Saudis have a tremendous amount of money invested in the west. They are depending on those assets for the future of their country after the oil runs out. If the world economy tanks, so does the value of their investments. That in turn puts their own future at risk.
“heads of state and relevant cabinet ministers of oil-producing countries and the biggest oil consumers, the heads of ExxonMobil, Shell and Gazprom, and bankers from Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. The meeting, to be held at the Royal Palace”
sounds like a newer version of the “time-honored” Bilderberg yearly conference.
“and it is out of their hands to control the prices now.”
I’m afraid it’s not - at least not yet. Have you been listening to all the spoiled brats in our legislative branch fighting and agreeing on nothing? once again, nancy pelosi’s and harry reid’s tribes.
That is exactly what is going to happen. In 1986, oil was $26 a barrel, down from $34. The American Oil Industry spent a ton of money to gear up for oil shales. Then Opec dropped the price of crude to $8 per barrel for a year and wiped out the resource plays in the US (and also wiping out a lot of domestic companies.) The will not let us become sufficent unless the American people allow it—i.e. set a floor on crude prices at about $50 per barrel.
The Saudis also have much of their money invested in the U.S.
Sometimes investors plan on “taking a loss” on certain investments as part of their long-range strategy.
They are depending on those assets for the future of their country after the oil runs out.
In the West? All their eggs aren’t just in this basket. Don’t think they don’t have a s**t load of investments worldwide, China and India being large ones, as well.
“it would take us no more than ten years”
We would have been in fine shape if that was the attitude carter would have taken the first time this happened. Now, obama(who would be king) is starting the mantra of “it will take us at least ten years” and giving that as the excuse that we should not be drilling now and drilling here.
Rather than tax the American taxpayer to spur development, why not offer tax cuts to companies to develop and produce it?
Nah, it would be far cheaper to invade Mexico and start tapping their oil reserves. Or even just start allowing drilling off our coast and in ANWR.
Good point—that is what the Democrats are trying to eliminate. They don’t want additional production, but they want to blame oil companies because they won’t just give it away in the spirit of kindness.
Wall Street Journal top headline - “Oil Summit to Take on Speculators”
First Der Spiegel is an excellent source of information which I didn't know about. So thanks for exposing me to it.
Second. The article links to another on peak oil - a very good one. In particular it's worth comparing the two on what they say about Saudi Arabia.
They have to believe that, if we wanted to, we could develop an alternative form of energy.
I am so sick of this BS “solution” to the high price of fuel I could just puke.
(1) people live far away from work because the housing costs are usually less than 1/2 that of being close to work. So any F’ing moron who thinks that moving from a $150,000 house to a $400,000 house to save $20/day is a fool. (2) who works at the same job for the rest of their lives these days? Should we move every time we get a new job? Maybe you can move every time ... if you keep the RV and live in the company's parking lot!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.