Western economies pay the price for War Crimes
" The pipeline, from Iraq's northern oilfields, would create a mbuttive source of cheap Arab oil for the US, bring revenue to a new Iraqi government, and instantly solve Israels energy problems" - from Haretz , 18-5-2003
"The plan has been given tacit consent in Washington and Tel Aviv, and by potential leaders in Baghdad" -ibid
"The Israeli Minister for National Infrastructures, Mr Joseph Paritzky told Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz the pipeline would cut Israel's energy bill by more than 25%" - The Herald Sun 18-5-2003
How the warmongers gloated as Iraq was invaded.. it would be a cheap oil Bonanza.. but then the USSA lost control, TixIraq became a dangerous quagmire and threatened to make regional instability worse.
Now, in the wake of petrol prices hitting $1-16 a litre at the pump after crude oil hit $US60 ($A78) a barrel, the acting general secretary of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Adnan Shihab-Eldin, blamed a "fear factor" for driving crude oil prices up.
The problem is that oil is a commodity, not a product, and supply cannot simply be expanded by increasing production:
"Today's high gas prices have many roots" - Knight Ridder 7-4-2005
"The biggest reason pump prices have risen is the surging global price of crude oil, which is refined into gasoline. Crude oil prices are set on international markets, where price generally is determined by old-fashioned supply and demand. When a product is in short supply, people are willing to pay more for it."
On the Demand the biggest consumer is the USSA, an oil junkie with such a habit that it will go to war and dissolution a hundred thousand men women and children based on a lie, in a failed attempt to secure the 2nd largest reserves.
The USSA has 2.2% of the worlds reserves, produces 10.7% and consumes a whopping 25.9% of global oil output!!
The greedy gluttons, a mere 5% of the worlds population are sucking up fully ONE QUARTER of the entire earths limited oil.
China with 20% of the world population, 400% greater than the USSA, consumes a mere 6% of world oil production.
That means the average American energy glutton consumes more than 10 times the oil than the average Chinese.. 1000% more.
Even the rapid economic growth fuelling China and India's increased demand for energy is linked to US consumption;
"India and China also are stretching supplies, as fast-developing nations. China is on course to equal today's U.S. consumption of oil by 2020. While the United States imports oil mainly to power vehicles, China imports it to power industry. China's industrial growth, in great measure, is tied to the strong U.S. economy that buys its exports. American consumers pay China's oil bills.
"We're the ones buying the goods from China. It is driving their increased demand for energy," said John Giglio, an oil expert and the executive director of the National buttociation of State Energy Officials in Alexandria, Va. " - Knight Ridder
But now fear of stocks running out, and of instability in oil prodicing nations (Iraqi oil production dropped to LESS THAN 50% of it's pre war levels AFTER the invasion!) is another price driver;
"Oil isn't a finished product but a commodity. That adds a wrinkle to the supply-and-demand explanation. It's traded in contracts for future delivery, and these contracts are bought and sold like stocks.
Also like stocks, the perception of risk can be as much a factor as the underlying supply-demand fundamentals in determining the value of oil. Some buyers of oil contracts are users of oil or gas who seek to lock in prices now out of concern that they might rise later. Others are investors who trade in oil as speculators, trying to guess a trend they can get rich from.
Oil prices are being driven up by investors who think the price will go higher in the future. In many cases, they might be acting for you.
"The oil market, believe it or not, is being fueled by your pension fund," said Philip K. Verleger, a noted oil economist in Aspen, Colo. "For more than a decade, investment bankers have been advising pension funds to put 10 percent or 11 percent of their buttets into commodities."
The New York Mercantile Exchange last month reported an all-time high in trading for crude oil-futures contracts. Regulators said noncommercial traders, pension funds and the more speculative hedge funds accounted for 34 percent of the contracts last month. "
Picture this; the new wave of terror the USSA has created by it's bungling and war crimes in TexIraq continues to fester, the persons, having seen the Trillion$ they could cost the world Superpower at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars will increasingly target the Paper Tiger's soft underbelly. How vulnerable is the world economy to a single point of failure? Very;
"Meanwhile, the supply of oil, industry analysts said, is growing at only 2 percent a year. Refineries are running at 90 percent capacity or more. There's no margin for error.
"There is no cushion in the market to absorb any unexpected changes in supply and demand," said Guy Caruso, the head of the Energy Information Administration. Saudi Arabia reportedly pledged this week to pump oil up to the limits of its matchless production capacity in an effort to calm market nerves, but so far markets haven't much reacted.
A single event - such as a strategically placed plant in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, or sabotage at a U.S. refinery - could spark global shortages.
"We're used to an oil market that if Iraq goes down or Nigeria goes down, Saudi Arabia and other producers can cover it. We don't have that anymore," said Rick Mueller, an analyst at Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Wakefield, Mbutt.
The potential for scarcity drives up the price of oil."
Everytime I have posted on this subject, I have been attacked for being alarmist, or for insisting on looking at BOTH supply and demand side factors, instead of the usual dumb imitation of the Bush line that it's all China's fault! B^p And every year price of oil rockets upward...
So who are the winners?
"Your loss at the pumps is the gain of oil-rich nations and global oil giants.
Big oil companies posted record profits last year and should grow even flusher this year. Oil companies will occupy three of the top 10 spots when Fortune magazine releases its ranking of the top 500 publicly traded companies Monday.
Exxon Mobil Corp. ranks second, behind only Wal-Mart. Exxon posted sales nearing $221 billion in 2004, a figure roughly equivalent to the economy of Greece. Fortune ranked it the most profitable company on its list, with $21.5 billion in profits, a staggering figure larger than the economies of Madagascar and Iceland combined.
ChevronTexaco Corp. and ConocoPhillips ranked 7th and 8th, respectively. ChevronTexaco saw its net income - or profit - jump to $13.3 billion in 2004, almost twice its 2003 take.
As for Howard and the tories, they don't have a clue
"petrol prices won't rise with the GST"
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
Everytime prices rise, the Howard government takes a GST tax increase! It's a tax on a tax on the commodity that has doubled in price since the illegal war in TexIraq. They promised cheaper oil when the TexIraq fields were 'liberated', instead it is heading for $2 a litre and beyond.. and impacting on every goods and service that requires transport plastical or chemicals. That don't leave much, folks! B^p
While Howard and Bush were dreaming of Cheap Iraqi oil, I was warning of the future which is coming to pbutt:
