<<<Another question,,Why do we allow ourselves to suppor an Arab country that doesnt like Americans any by buying their oil.>>>
The Arabs are dependent on us buying their oil, they just don't want us trying to control via military force their countries. We (along with the British) overthrew Iran in 1953 b/c the democratically elected president nationalized their oil resources. We put in the despotic Shah in 1953, and he brutally ruled until ousted in 1979. Iran has not forgiven us yet for overthrowing their early attempts at Democracy.
As for Iraq, we otherthrew Saddam b/c he switched his oil pricing to euros and Iraq is the only nation that might have worthwhile unproven reserves. However, will eventually be thrown out of that country too as more and more of the Iraqis do not accept us as liberators but as occupiers. BTW, Z. Brenzinski(sp), Carter's brillant geostrategist recommended Americans watch the (in)famous 1967 film "The Battle for Algiers" in order to learn a good perspective re what is happening in Iraq. I watched it this weekend - he was right, we can not stay there. As for Saudi Arabia, their very own oil minister recently stated *publicly* that the whole "idea of oil production quotas will go away within a few years." This is quite a remarkable admission from Saudi Arabia, who is basically admitting that their role as the "swing producer" is going to end by the end of this decade...
In other words, Saudi Arabia and every other OPEC and non-OPEC country will be pumping out as much oil as possible, but still *unable to meet global aggregate demand,* which is scheduled to reach 100 billion barrels per year by 2020. The problem? It appears that 77-76 billion barrels circa 2001/2002 may have been the global peak, and thus oil prices at the pump will continue to increase *irreversably* every year into the future. If Iraq does not have an extra 100 billion barrels as hoped for, then we must get used to the fact that the wonderful era of "cheap oil" is finally over. Thus, this requires the utlization of the word "decline" with respect to economic activity/growth - but like the words "Iraq & petroeuro" - the US media does not appear willing to report on these issues...
The DU link here re "imminent global financial crisis" has a lot of important information re Peak Oil.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=114&topic_id=2706According to highly-experiecned retired oil scientists like Colin Campbell and Deffreyes, we may have reached global peak oil in 2001. Furthermore, the most prestigious and analytical research institute on oil issues is Petroconsultants Inc, and their analysts are trying to ring the alarm bell. But I think here in the US only the CIA and Bush/Cheney folks know about this issue..hence our scamble over the past year to send troops all over control oil in Columbia, Venezuela, Nigeria, the coast off West Africa, and of course Iraq...the greatest hope for significant unproven reserves so that Global oil can be a short plateau instead of peak. I think the "war on terror" is more about pacifying the US Sheeple in order for the neocons to desperately try to gain control over oil and the currency of oil rather than fighting terrorists.
What Peak Oil that means is that supply simply cannot reach demand anymore. Richard Heniberg's book "The Party's Over" is a good circa 2003 book on this subject. Peak Oil is quite a disconcerting concept. Here's a newsletter from Heinberg on this subejct:
The Petroleum Plateau (May 2003)
http://www.museletter.com/archive/135.htmlHere's my comments from that post on this forum re global oil production.
These global oil production figures are interesting, and suggest that Peak Oil may have occured in 2001, or we have reached plateau:
1995: 69,876 (barrels produced in billions)
1996: 71,045
1997: 73,665
1998: 75,133
1999: 74,142
2000: 77,002
2001: 77,031
2002: 76,330 (as best as I can tell)
2003: Anxiously awaiting...
(FYI: According to Dick Cheney and his famously secretive 2001 energy plans, the demand for oil in 2020 will be 100 billion b/day. Based on everything I've read...that simply ain't gonna happen. My question? Will the 2003 production totals, despite mitigating factors in Iraq, be above or below 76 billion barrels...best to keep the American Sheeple dumb, fearful, and preoccupied with "reality TV shows" and daily rhetoric about the so-called "war on terrorism" - how else can the neocon imperialist can carry out their imperialist plans? The problem of course is that Empire abroad ultimately results in tyanny at home....and thus we should heed the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and reject the temptation for Empire...and begin to work on 2 very serious challenges - the global monetary system and Peak Oil)
FYI: I also recommend you read about Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI), which is when the laws of economics clash with the laws of physics. Physics wins.