The following was extracted from a Reuters News Service article dated November 15, 2008 -
"TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran's OPEC governor said on Saturday talks were underway on cooperation between OPEC and producers outside the cartel to reduce oil output, following tumbling crude prices in recent months.
"Now there are negotiations that non-OPEC countries cooperate with OPEC to lower output to some extent because if they don't ... or if they increase output, they have neutralized OPEC's action," Mohammad Ali Khatibi said in an interview broadcast live on Iranian state television."
OPEC's obvious intention is to attempt to further damage a struggling world economy, while OPEC members continue to bathe in money. The question then becomes: How can the United States protect itself from energy banditry by OPEC? OPEC is made up of people who would have no petroleum industry had it not been for western exploration, organization and technology.
Here's a brief history of the development of the petroleum industry as it exists today:
1. Oil drilling began in the U.S.A. in 1859, and wasn't taken to the middle east until 1901 when the first oil concessions were contracted with Persia (now Iran).
2. 1917 - The U.S. produced two-thirds of the world's oil!
3. 1932 - The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was created as a sovereign nation, and in 1933 the first oil concessions in Saudi Arabia were granted to Standard Oil of California.
4. 1937 - Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia and, in 1945 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and King Abdul Aziz of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, make an agreement whereby military protection of the Kingdom would be provided in exchange for oil supplies.
5. 1948 - Ghawar, the world's largest oil field, discovered in eastern Saudi Arabia.
6. 1950 - Completion of the 1,056 mile long Trans-Arabian Pipeline (TAPline). The Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company, a joint venture by Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso), Standard Oil of California (Chevron), The Texas Company (Texaco) and Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (Mobil), was a major factor in economic development of Lebanon after independence and especially in the emergence of the south. TAPline was an important industrial adventure in global trade, the petroleum industry and American-Middle East politics.
7. 1953 - United States and Britain staged a coup d'etat against the democratically elected government of Iran's President Mohammed Mossadeq after he nationalized oil resources.
8. 1956 - Renowned Geophysicist, Dr. M. King Hubbert gave a speech outlining "the science of peak oil," in which he predicts US peak in 1970 and world peak in mid-1990s (the latter might have happened if the 1973 oil embargo had not reduced consumption).
9. 1960 - Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) formed.
10. 1961 - Iraq makes effort to seize Kuwait, stopped by British military.
11. 1964 - World oil discovery peaks.
12. 1965 - Middle East oil production exceeds that of the United States.
13. 1968 - Oil is discovered on the Alaska North Slope by British Petroleum Corp (BP).
14. 1969 - Oil is discovered in the North Sea.
15. 1971 - US petroleum production peaks.
16. 1973 - The Saudi oil embargo results in gas lines in the United States. President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger secretly contemplate seizing oil fields. The Alaska Pipeline is approved by Congressional vote, thereby exempting it from Federal law.
17. 1974 - Arab oil embargo ends.
18. 1975 - Oil drilling begins in North Sea.
19. 1977 - The Alaska pipeline opens ... President Carter gives a televised speech declaring that the energy crisis is the "moral equivalent of war."
20. 1979 - Gas lines return. On July 15th, 1979 President Jimmy Carter gave the following impassioned speech to America (emphasis added) - "What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.
Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I'm announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.
...In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail. Thank you and good night." (Point one didn't exactly come to pass, and now we're paying the price for it - again.)
21. 1988 - Alaskan pipeline production peaks - hits maximum output at three quarter billion barrels a year
22. 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait. The United States Central Command is engaged in a war game exercise called "Internal Look" at this time that simulated Iraq invading Kuwait. In mid-August the United States starts sending troops to Saudi Arabia, Operation "Desert Shield" beings.
23. 1991 - Operation Desert Storm - US drives Iraq out of Kuwait, decimates Iraqi infrastructure.
24. 1993 - NAFTA Treaty established, which gives the United States some powers over water and fossil energy resources in Canada and Mexico.
25. 1994 - In March of 1994 Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, stated the following:
“The United States and the entire industrialized world have an enormous stake in the security of the Persian Gulf, not primarily in order to save a few dollars per gallon of gasoline but rather because a hostile regime in control of those resources could wreak untold damage on the world’s economy, and could apply that wealth to purposes that would endanger peace globally.” Wolfowitz concludes, “Given this permanent stake in the security of the Persian Gulf, the Gulf War provided an opportunity to base security on a foundation of credible commitment by the United States and its coalition partners.”
26. 2008 - The world sees oil prices top $140 per barrel, and watches as gas pump prices skyrocket.
Okay - I did say a brief history (covering 150 years in 26 points isn't excessive), and that pretty much brings us up to date. Prices have dropped significantly in October-November, but that will change if/when OPEC gets its way. What we need to do in order to protect our interests is to DRILL NOW! However, with the radical left taking control of our government in January of 2009, we undoubtedly will not do anything we need to do to insure our Nation's security - physical-, military-, economic -, or energy-security.
I could be wrong .............. and I HOPE I AM!
(but, I seriously doubt that I am ... )
Standard Liberal Voting Position
