Tuesday 23rd of April 2024
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hooked .....

hooked .....

Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it.

Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.” 

Actually, it’s more sophisticated than that: Get Saudi Arabia, our chief oil pusher, to up our dosage for a little while and bring down the oil price just enough so the renewable energy alternatives can’t totally take off. Then try to strong arm Congress into lifting the ban on drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.” 

It is hard for me to find the words to express what a massive, fraudulent, pathetic excuse for an energy policy this is. But it gets better. The president actually had the gall to set a deadline for this drug deal: 

“I know the Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past,” Mr. Bush said. “Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions. If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act.” 

Mr Bush, Lead or Leave 

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meanwhile …..

Oil summit calls for supply boost …..

Leading oil exporters have acknowledged the need to boost supplies to curb soaring prices but stopped short of specific commitments on extra output. Following their crisis summit in Saudi Arabia, officials noted price levels were 'hostile' and more investment was needed to ensure 'adequate' supplies. Saudi Arabia blamed speculation, not lack of supply, for surging prices but said it was willing to raise output. 

Earlier, Gordon Brown said more supply was needed to ease price 'instability'. 

'Ready to act' 

The US, UK and other major consumers of oil have urged producers to boost supply, blaming lack of capacity for the recent price surge. 

In a statement issued at the end of the meeting in Jeddah, officials from Opec oil exporters and consumers said 'an appropriate increase in investment' in production was needed to ensure that the markets were 'well supplied in a timely and adequate manner'. 

The final communiqué made no reference to immediate action to cool prices, which have surged more than 40% this year alone. 

But Saudi Arabia said it would be prepared to pump more oil 'if demand for such quantities materializes and our customers tell us they are needed'. 

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elsewhere …..

So great is the demand for oil today - and so great the concern over rising prices - that it would be tempting to uncritically embrace plans by major Western oil companies to return to Iraq. 

Unfortunately, the evolving deals could well rekindle understandable suspicions in the Arab world about oil being America’s real reason for invading Iraq and fan even more distrust and resentment among Iraq’s competing religious and ethnic factions. 

Iraq Oil Rush 

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and the political spin ….. 

Gordon Brown today clashed with leading oil producing nations by insisting that fundamental market imbalances, rather than speculative pressures, were driving up oil prices and creating the world's third and worst oil shock. 

Brown was in Jeddah at an unprecedented one-day oil summit of producers and consumers convened by Saudi Arabia, saying it was the duty of the world leaders to address the biggest crisis facing the world. Brown was the only major world leader to travel to the summit among the 35 nations attending the hastily convened conference.

Brown's analysis of the causes of record oil costs was at odds with the Opec president, Chakib Khelil, who reiterated opposition to increased production by saying that 'the price is disconnected from fundamentals' of supply and demand. 

'We believe that the market is in equilibrium. The price is disconnected from fundamentals. It is not a problem of supply.' 

Brown Clashes With Oil Nations Over Causes Of Price Surge

English sausage

As I was musing through old files today, I reread the secret files on the way Tony Blair tried to scuttle (successfully, so far?) the investigation of the BAE deal (the exhibits) with the Saudis... In his pleading letter to the Attorney General, Tony made a lot of mention that he was in favour of stamping out illegal payola in international commerce, but in the case of the Saudi deal he mentioned a lot of security this and security that, including foreign policy in Lebanon etc, while BAE pushed the British national interest this and that in the sale of weapons no matter whatever especially in the face of strong competition from the French and the Americans. One thing was missing: oil. Not mentioned once. Not even an allusion to.

There was a lot of mention of cooperation in fighting terrorism this and that...

I started to read between the lines... The Saudis can really take care of themselves without the help of the Brits. They don't need MI6. Mossad does not "need" the CIA or MI6. None of these organisations trust each other either. Thus all this fluffy mention of this and that was either a way to infiltrate the Saudis, was it to make a sale no matter what or was it a way not to upset the apple cart and keep the petroleum flowing with a golden handshake... A bit of all this I thought. The enigmatic Saudis must have been laughing their heads off behind closed doors, that which never really open to the West, when they'd come across these files available on the net — or even while doing "the deal"...

The Saudis will output 200,000 barrels more per day from next week onwards... Of course this won't bring the price of oil down but will line their pockets with an extra US$28 millions per day for turning the taps an extra 7 per cent more or so. Transport and loading are fully paid by the hungry mobs addicted to the stuff. Us. In less than 40 days, the Saudis will make the equivalent of the alleged billion dollar kickback paid to a Saudi Prince as a bribe to sign the BAE aircraft deal — on the increased output alone.

British lamb sausages. And Bushit gave the Saudis weapons to the value of US$20 billions too...

Check this site for the relevant cartoons... 

 

fretting, frying, walking...

As one muses over the price of petrol versus the cost of a walking stick, One can see with a certain apprehension what would happen if just one of the oil supertankers (several hundreds of these roaming the world daily) sank...

At 140 US$ per barrel, at an average load of 200,000 tonnes, at 7.5 barrels per metric tonnes (average — depending on the country of origin) one such tanker's cargo would be worth around 200 million US dollars net and carry about 2 per cent (1.5 million barrels) of the daily world substance addiction hovering at 88 million barrels a day. Fretting at the futures, the traders would push the price beyond $US150 a barrel in a flash. Enough to fry the world's economies a bit more...

A few nervous ship captains out there?... Hum... As the Exxon compensation package to the victims of the Exxon Valdez is slashed to a fifth of what it should have been, these times are looking good for oil inc. since the US oil reserves are at an all time low...

And suddenly walking that extra mile appears attractive on a nice day.

Just for your information

By the way, apparently, the Exxon Valdez is still plodding the high seas... under a new name:

The Mediterranean... 

pissed as a fart...


'Wall Street got drunk' says Bush

President Bush was explaining the recent turmoil in US financial markets

US President George W Bush has explained the credit crunch savaging US financial markets by saying "Wall Street got drunk".

"It got drunk and now it's got a hangover," Mr Bush said at a private political fundraiser in Houston, Texas.

Members of the media were not invited and the audience had been asked to turn off their cameras.

But somebody recorded the statement on a mobile phone video camera and it was posted on the internet.

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I would not mind having a bit more of what Wall Street gets drunk on: money... That's why Bushit and his banker gave more moneys to salvage the banks that had drunk too much of the stuff. Never ends up in the pocket of the poor though...

Mr simplistic War himself got pissed on power... And by the way, the prez has decided he is not the decider anymore... In the same clip, he gives Laura ... the gong...

"Thank god" for people with discreet spying telephones spying on our prime spyer...