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Congress (3114) Senate (810) Energy (632) Crisis (476) Markets (461) Oil Policy (360) Energy (316) Oil Cost Of $$$ (265) Hearings (235) Oil Demand Supply (221) Crisis In Confidence (127) Oil Price Fixing Manipulation (124) Oil Reserves (89) OPEC (81) Reagan (55) Cheating (43) Exxon (36)
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"While researching my third article for BusinessWeek online about the world’s oil situation in 2008, I asked for the most current report from Oil Movements. Because the oil industry is not transparent, Oil Movements tracks every tanker at sea, from both OPEC and non-OPEC oil countries, along with their cargoes’ final destinations. Anne O’Shea responded immediately to my request with their report dated May 8, 2008." Mr. Wallace says that all classes of oil shipments, except one, have gone up since a year ago, including Middle East oil in transit and Non-OPEC oil in Transit." Which class has gone down? The 4-Week Changes in Westbound Oil at Sea. Mr. Wallace points out that "shipments of oil headed west have shown serious declines during the month of April, down 800,000 barrels per day in the week before the publication of the report." He goes on to give us the first line from under the Westbound Oil shipments chart: "In the west, a big share of any [oil] stock building done this year has happened offshore, out of sight." Clearly impressed himself, he goes on, "Oil Movements, the unimpeachable source for finding the real world situation on oil transits, is saying that oil is being hidden offshore, not declared in inventories? Yes, that is exactly what they are saying. "That same week our refineries cut their production runs back to 85 percent, down from 89 percent a year ago, to trim more gasoline out of our stock reserves, to increase their profits per gallon." What is going on? Hiding oil to drive up the price? To get tax breaks despite mammoth profits? To get Congress to open up ANWAR and the off-shore drilling? Who ever heard of such a thing? Well ... we have. Remember Enron? Mr. Wallace sure does: "Enron ... manipulat[ed] the California energy market, even forcing rolling blackouts across the northern part of their state apparently just for effect – to support their claim that there just wasn’t enough electricity to go around. Again, we now know that claim was untrue. It was Enron shutting down certain power generation plants, while placing bets on their unregulated energy futures market. The net cost to California consumers was almost $8 billion." What did we do about it? There were Congressional hearings in 2001, during which included "blasting certain Wall Street executives for using the media to sell the public on stocks in order to bid up the price – so their firm could divest of its shares without taking a beating. Meanwhile, other trusted advisors pushed stocks that were fundamentally worthless, because their affiliated banks had large loan agreements with those companies." We know that is called cheating. Also, stealing. We know that was stealing from us. I'm a mother and grandmother. There is no way I can leave my family or anyone else's children, things as they are now.
OIL CRISIS ARTICLE COMMENT This is an important article, in the context of trying to evaluate our international situation and our energy dependence, after 8 years of corporate kleptocracy and the era of the lying Neocons, willing to fabricate phoney evidence for them and their cronies, like Blackwater, Brown and Root, etc., to make a few bucks, and willing to fabricate evidence especially for us to invade Iraq. Why doesn't anyone in the USA really object to that, as in the US Congress? Has it become just more BUSINESS AS USUAL? Have we become so acquiescent and just a bunch of moral sluggards that we can tolerate just about anything, in terms of perfidy by top government officials? THUS, maybe we really are looking at the complete demise of the prestige and standing of the United States; in any case, the next President will have a major job rebuilding it, and this is why I support Governor Bill Richrardson of New Mexico to become the next Secretary of State: NOT FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS has that position been as important and vital as it is going to be from 2008-2012. Truly, Stephen Fox, Managing Editor Santa Fe Sun News Founder, New Millennium Fine Art, Santa Fe Gallery since 1980 by
Stephen Fox (64 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 281 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9:57:15 PM
Midwesterner, veteran of VietNam era naval service, I still feel an obligation to defend the Constitution against "all enemies, foreign and domestic."
There's no need to hide oil offshore,... there is no supply shortage, nor is there a significant surplus. The run up in prices can be attributed to the inflation caused by the collapse of the dollar and runaway speculation for the most part. The bizarre component of this is that it has stayed Big Oil's hand from artificially raising prices as much as they have in previous years. If the dollar were on par with the euro, as it was not so long ago, gasoline would sell for around $2.50 per gallon, and crude oil would trade for around $80.00 per barrel. None of this should be construed as a defense of Big Oil. If Ben Bernanke had not cranked up the presses to produce toilet paper with presidential portraits on it, they would still have had a target for this year of around $3.75 to $4.00 per gallon. They can see that with an impending peak in worldwide crude oil production, there is a time coming where gasoline will be priced at $8.00 to $10.00 per gallon. They need to bring their market up to that level gradually, rather than abruptly, if they want to keep us on the hook; and in the interim, there's a ton of windfall profit to enjoy. by
John Sanchez Jr. (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1174 comments)
on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 8:52:21 AM
Midwesterner, veteran of VietNam era naval service, I still feel an obligation to defend the Constitution against "all enemies, foreign and domestic."
I should point out,... that these assertions are largely my conjecture. But, it is conjecture based on twenty four years in the industry and over thirty years of industry watching. by
John Sanchez Jr. (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1174 comments)
on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 8:55:09 AM
I'm a mother and grandmother. There is no way I can leave my family or anyone else's children, things as they are now.
Congressional hearings There seems to be some evidence that things are being rigged to drive up gas prices - which leads to tax breaks, opening doors to drilling, nuclear, and coal, to deregulating of all things, and to taking what's for the taking, right now. Achieving those things is all based on making the public sufficiently fearful and upset about gas prices that they are ready to do anything to get relief. But if Wallace is right that this may be another Enron-type manipulation, then, the sooner it is exposed, the better. It took a long time to make Bush's lies common knowledge. Perhaps this might work more quickly since we've gotten used to the existence of lies. So, the public might be more ready to believe there "could" be something wrong going on. It would certainly welcome investigations to find out, and given the upset about gas prices, perhaps Congress would have trouble refusing. by
Linn Cohen-Cole (11 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 47 comments)
on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 1:48:38 PM
Undergraduate degree in political science and philosophy: summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa; with postgraduate work in political economics. Postgraduate degree is a juris doctorate. I am a voracious reader and, although I make no claim to expertise, have self studied in logic, linguistics, theology, theoretical physics, macroeconomics, technical and fundamental market analysis, world history, and many other subjects, which I believed at the time helped explain the world around me.
A FEW PERTINENT FACTS Oil use in India has not increased by much. Oil use is actually increasing more in the oil producing countries of the Mideast than it is in India. The United States reached peak oil production in the 1970's. Russia has probably passed its peak oil mark. Based upon claimed reserves in the world, peak world oil occurs within the next ten years. However, there is no way of independently verifying a particular country's reserves, and since political power comes with large reserves, many countries may be overstating their reserves. Hence, we could have passed peak world oil without knowing this vital fact. Logically, we will hit peak oil whether or not we drill new wells. It is only a matter of time. Experience demonstrates that our political system is incapable of dealing with the issue until a crisis arises. Better, that such a crisis arise now than that it arise when we are truly out of oil. This shortage, even if manipulated, can only end in new discoveries and ways of thinking for the American people. We simply must not allow drilling offshore or in our national sanctuaries Although we were solidly anti-nuclear in the 1970's, we must approach open-mindedly any progress made in safety and nuclear waste disposal since then. If nothing of consequence has changed, then we must look elsewhere for an answer to our oil dependence. Basing our consumption on our local economy, or communal ownership of farms, stores and small, local manufacturing entities may turn out to be the ultimate answer. Certainly the answer is the opposite of that proposed by the elite: concentrating manufacturing, farming, and political power in fewer and fewer hands and trading over greater and greater distances. by
W.M.L. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 330 comments)
on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 6:26:12 PM
I'm a mother and grandmother. There is no way I can leave my family or anyone else's children, things as they are now.
Think we are more and more agreeing about the answer. The question becomes how to get there past the control already in place, including legal, institutional, etc. by
Linn Cohen-Cole (11 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 47 comments)
on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 9:47:01 PM
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