doubleplusundead

September 11, 2008

Whoa...

The Saudis walked out of an OPEC meeting. The cartel made a motion to cut oil production, and the Saudis declared they would not honor the motion. Most of the rest of OPEC is pointing to the recent price drop as the excuse, but the Saudis are afraid that winter will cause a spike, and if petroleum prices put too much pressure on the economy, it'd collapse and oil prices would go with it.

Basically the way it works is that Saudis and Gulf States recognize that if the high prices keep up, the US is going to seek out alternate energy sources and our own oil sources. Countries like Iran and Venezuela need the high prices today to fuel their social policies and military activities, and can't worry about tomorrow's economy. So they now have a split, and things fell apart in the OPEC meeting as a result, this should get interesting.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:09 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 I get the feeling that not only did they walk out of the meeting, they walked out of OPEC. Which is a very very good thing, IMO.

Posted by: Alice H at September 11, 2008 11:36 AM (jRtPb)

2 I can't find any confirmation of it, though. sigh.

Posted by: Alice H at September 11, 2008 11:45 AM (jRtPb)

3 From the article:

It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran.

I wonder how you say "FOAD, bitches" in Arabic.

Posted by: Sean M. at September 11, 2008 12:05 PM (e6v7s)

DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL.

CLEAN COAL CLEAN COAL CLEAN COAL CLEAN COAL

NUKES NUKES NUKES NUKES NUKES (POWER OR ON IRAN)

I don't care if the Saudis nuke their country to set up a giant well to pump ALL the oil out of the ground in one, price-crushing, swoop, apologize for all terrorist-funding/madrassa-building activities and actually give women full rights, we still need to DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL, ETC. and free ourselves from any future entanglements (as much as humanly possible) in the Middle East and other, socialist-cum-communist, dictatorships.

That said, I welcome any potential collapse of OPEC with open arms which would, hopefully, precipitate the demise of I'manutjob and Hugo the Boy Tyrant.

Posted by: ECM at September 11, 2008 12:19 PM (q3V+C)

5 The Saudis know that if they let the price stay too high the gravy train ends. Bully for them for having the sense to stay in business and realize they can beat the rest of OPEC on price without straining a muscle.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at September 11, 2008 12:23 PM (SHR5S)

6 Totally agree ECM, drill, build new power plants and rebuild the energy grid. We can't let the Saudis smart move let us get lazy.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at September 11, 2008 12:38 PM (/ym+y)

7 Sean, Google translates it as: من اللعنه والموت ، الكلبات

which translates back to "The curse of death, bitches" so I think it's probably pretty close. I can't find a decent pronunciation guide, though, and I think if I called up the only Arabic speaker I know and asked her how to pronounce this, on September 11, I'd get slapped through the phone.

Posted by: Alice H at September 11, 2008 01:03 PM (jRtPb)

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