Posted on 12/22/2014 7:58:21 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Saudi Oil Minister Says Russia Doesn't 'Deserve Market Share'
Jim Edwards
Dec. 22, 2014, 12:10 PM
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi really got the world's attention in an interview he gave to the energy journal Middle East Economic Survey (MEES). We told you earlier that Naimi said the Saudis don't care how low the price of oil goes: "Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant."
What's interesting though is Naimi's rationale for not caring. Basically, he told MEES, the Saudis can afford not to care about the low price of oil.
/snip
Everyone is asking whether the Saudis should pump less oil and let the price come up, rescuing nations like Russia who need the price of oil to be $105 a barrel. But why should the Saudis be punished for Russia's uselessness? Naimi told MEES — via The Financial Times — that Russia doesn't "deserve market share":
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
That's kind of a funny thing to say since the Russian produce more oil than the Saudis.
You should really read the article to understand in full context what the Saudis are saying.
The Saudis are basically saying why should they reduce their own market share, when the Russians produce more oil than the Saudis.
The Saudis don’t care?
What happens when they can’t make welfare payments to the majority of their population that don’t work?
Wow! The Saudi arrogance is stunning. There are so many ways for Russia to break the Saudis; hacker attacks, financial attacks, bombing, invasion by a proxy state. We live in interesting times.
You know... at some level I’d be good with Russia invading and taking over Saudia Arabia. I’d rather deal with them than arabs.
Soviet Union was a predictable enemy during the cold war. Their biggest move was the invasion of Afghanistan.
the Russian bear
**********
Oh,please.Their economy is about the size of Spain! lol
They could have it for all I care.
Yep.... and they weren’t suicidal. And they weren’t muslim lunatics, and they didn’t behead people, and they could be reasoned with somewhat.
Hey Bismilla, hold my non-alcoholic beer and watch me poke this bear!
Ok, Obama likes Muslims, commies and homos. This could get interesting.
Don’t you miss the good ole days when our biggest worries were if the Russians were gonna have another Chernobyl, or if Clinton was bagging interns in the white house? OR... if y2k was going to be a big deal or not.
Using (1) to result in (2) is a lot more politically correct, and will be excused as an unintended consequence.
The US / Canada Hydrocarbon Production resurgence is looked at as the biggest threat to OPEC's grip on global markets.
whats not being said here, is that in Brazil,
going online very soon,
is a plant that produces fuel ethanol
from sugarcane bagasse.
if it works out this time,
all bets are off
(2)Most non-ethanol blend gasolines contain <10% c2=OH. E10, & E15 blends are hated by motorist due to motor ping.
(3) And as far as E85?, I tried one tank in my Flex-Fuel Truck, and it drove like s___.
Bottom line, Ethanol is better suited in a bottle of Wild Turkey, as it's efficacy as fuel is only decent when crude goes $100+/bbl, and / or when crude is short.
They aren’t very vulnerable to hacker attacks, frankly this sort of thing is just a niusance.
Financial attacks ditto. The Saudis have huge international investments, very diversified. The Russians couldn’t touch them without, somehow, attacking everyone, including their own private stashes abroad.
Worst they could do, short of nukes, to the Saudis, is fund Iran to make trouble. Or give Iran nukes. But if the Russians are low on funds, this isn’t in the cards.
Just because its from bagasse doesn’t mean it will be cheap, and AFAIK sugar centrals depend on bagasse as their bunker fuel. So bagasse is itself fairly valuable as a substitute will have to be found.
They don’t need to conquer, just deny the Saudis the ability to produce, refine, and ship their product. If they do this and do it long enough they will make money doing so. There is nothing like reward to motivate someone to aggression, particularly when the feel aggrieved or injured by the other party. .
The Russkies are in the same predicament, maybe even worse. It's only a question of who is more prepared to handle the change in oil prices the longest. It seems like the Saudis are confident that they can.
From a useful article on Russia written by a noble Russian:
"In simple terms, Russia is a mafia state. All the way from Moscow to regions and to small towns, everything is controlled by various mafia gangs. Police and judiciary are parts of most powerful gangs. They usually assist in extortion or theft of property earned by local small and medium size businessmen. Big business is subject to federal mafia clan wars. The mafia-state formation is logical consequence of Russian economy: it is totally dominated by oil and gas revenues. Oil, gas and derivatives provide meaningful employment to about 1M people. Russian population is about 150M. How do they survive? The majority depends on various forms of government handouts. With russian-style oil production you don’t have to think, innovate or even hire smart people. All you have to do is to cash the check. Gazprom is ranked as one of the most grossly inefficient enterprises in the world. So what happens when a small, totally incompetent minority controls country-wide oil rent while the rest of 149 million people are a burden? The answer is obvious: that 1M would create a mafia state to keep the rest of 149M in check by means of police and judiciary abuse and mass propaganda."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3189416/posts
anything that burns could be used for boiler fuel,
ethanol is a lot more valuable than sawdust, coal, etc
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.