Oil Surges on surprise OPEC cut:

[emad]

The UK's BBC reports that:

"International oil prices surged after surprise news of a cut in oil output leaked out of a meeting of Opec ministers in Vienna.
Both the Kuwaiti and Iranian oil ministers said the cartel would remove 900,000 barrels a day from the marketplace.

The news shocked traders who had not been expecting any change, and the price of the benchmark Brent crude oil jumped $1.03 or 3% to $26.55 a barrel."


more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3134406.stm

[Oggy]

1. Running out?

Peak oil? Or greedy?

[htuttle]

2. It's the Russians

The new deal is that oil stays above $25/barrel, in exchange for Moscow protecting them from Richard Perle (in a nutshell).

At least that's what my crystal ball says.

[tedzbear]

3. Please clarify...

...your Perle statement. I don't understand what you meant.

Thanks.

[htuttle]

5. When the neo cons talk about 're-inventing' the Middle East

...and 'redrawing the map' of that area, don't you think that message travels across the ocean to Saudi Arabia and the Oil Emirates? 'The Weekly Standard', aka. NeoCon Weekly, is actually available outside the US -- remember when their editor was chastized for suggesting that we nuke Mecca?

I'd imagine that it makes the Fahd family feel somewhat insecure, wouldn't you?

Without rehashing what was frequently discussed last week, Russia and Saudi Arabia signed some ground breaking agreements this month on things like oil production, security and trade.

Russian oil is expensive to produce, and Saudi Arabia is in a precarious security situation. I'm just putting the pieces together the way they seem to fit.

[emad]

6. See also: 'Chelsea tycoon sells Russian interests'

at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3135356.stm

Poppy's just come back from doing some shady bandar-inspired deal with 'Ras' Putin.

Looks like the old Russian moneylaunderers are steaming full ahead for yet another heist somewhere. Masterminding this sort of stuff is what Poppy/Cheney used to do as a hobby....

[Soloflecks]

9. What about this scenario? Is it possible?

http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm

Scroll down to Bot Shocker: Biggest lie was not WMDs. It was oil.

It finally all fits: Why the U.S. went into Iraq, why there has not been one WMD found, and what ex-President George Bush Senior may be doing in Russia - helping to negotiate oil deals and get control of gold trades as fast as the U.S. can!. Here is the BIG PICTURE low down from the web bots:

The web bots have pick up enough snippets of traffic out of Europe, specifically Swiss banker types and financial type sources, that suggest that Saddam Hussein not only lied about having WMDs but that more important - to the whole world - he lied about oil reserves as well!

Saddams motivation for lying about the WMDs seems clear in retrospect: He lied about them to keep Iran at bay on his Northern Frontiers, to keep Syria at arms length, and to insure that the Israelis were held in check and the Saudis left him alone.

According to the snips, relayed to me in a no-longer-confidential backgrounder with approval to release now, the amount of oil that will ultimately be recovered from Iraq may already be on the declining side of the Hubbert peak. In other words, the 3-million BPD that was being pumped before the U.S. invation may have been all anyone would EVER get from the fields, complete with rising salt water content and worse.

This also neatly explains why the Iraqis went into hyper-drive and invaded Kuwait which precipitated the first Iraq war: You may recall that the Kuwaitis were slant drilling (sideways drilling) across the border. If Saddam really had gobs of oil, he would not have gone ballistic, angry yes but invasion no. As the bot have it, there was not much left up north. The loss of any oil would have tipped off the big lie.

The Bush administration appears to be about to "hit the rocks" over oil in Iraq. The danger the administration faces is that if the word leaks out of the Iraq shortfall, before Bush Sr.a nd the Mobil/Exxon and ChevronTexaco parties can buy long term oil from Russia, the whole Western derivatives pyramid will come crashing down and our markets could be toast within 2 weeks..

[htuttle]

10. I saw that article last week

It seems a bit apocryphal without much evidence. Fascinating website, though.

However, what certainly is true is that the Iraqi oil production systems are in much worse shape than they'd previously believed before the invasion.

Before the invasion, they were floating predictions out there like full oil production in 6 months. After the invasion, it changed to more like 2 years for any substantial production, and 10 years until production was at its potential.

Whether Iraq actually has much less oil left than generally believed is something I haven't heard anywhere but that article.

[emad]

4. There's some odd machinations about:

last night the UK's BBC reported that British oil firms were investing up to $13 billion in new Russian fields - same firms who lost a packet when Enron & Worldcom went down the pan.....

The Kuwaiti/Iranian bedfellow biz is hardly surprising: both former 'enemies' of Saddam, probably being massaged into action by Poppy's old chum Bandar, keen to do a bit of price fixing and potential profit taking.

[tedzbear]

7. Bandar?

Do you have a link to explain who this man is? I am woefully behind in my understanding of the current Russian economy.
Thanks.

[emad]

8. Trying to find the DU thread on this one....

widely reported on the DU during the last three weeks. Bandar is a longtime Saudi Ambassador to the US, scion of the bin Abdul Aziz al Saud ruling family. Great mate of Poppy's, who went on a charm offensive about ten days ago, with Barb, to see Putin at his holiday home in Russia. Previously, Bandar had been reported as paying a sceret visit to Poppy and Barb in Kennebunkport - officially non-diplomatic business. DU threads at the time all commented.