Quinn: The Price of Our Oil Addiction - Newsweek Business - MSNBC.com: "That puts the oil-dependent countries in a serious bind. We're all jockeying for control of oilfields, in a vast game that runs the risk of turning mean. China and Japan are running warships near disputed oil and natural-gas deposits in the East China Sea. China is doing deals in Sudan, Venezuela and Iran (our 'bad guys'). Russia looks less friendly as we continue to invest in the oil countries around the Caspian Sea - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan.
Nobody really knows how much oil there is. State-run companies don't disclose their true reserves. But clearly there's not enough to cover long supply disruptions, and that puts future economic development at increasing risk. 'Terrorists have identified oil as the Achilles' heel of the West,' says Gal Luft, head of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. The world market is losing maybe 1.5 million barrels a day to political sabotage. In February, the Saudis foiled an attack on one of their major oil installations. Had it succeeded, it could have been an 'energy Pearl Harbor,' Luft says. No one can foresee how world markets would respond if we attack Iran, but traders are clearly running scared (oil touched $70 a barrel last week)."
Frankly I believe that this has turned very mean right now, but we are not yet seeing the full stripes of the struggle in our public papers and magazines. We are seeing it in other ways however.
Nobody really knows how much oil there is. State-run companies don't disclose their true reserves. But clearly there's not enough to cover long supply disruptions, and that puts future economic development at increasing risk. 'Terrorists have identified oil as the Achilles' heel of the West,' says Gal Luft, head of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. The world market is losing maybe 1.5 million barrels a day to political sabotage. In February, the Saudis foiled an attack on one of their major oil installations. Had it succeeded, it could have been an 'energy Pearl Harbor,' Luft says. No one can foresee how world markets would respond if we attack Iran, but traders are clearly running scared (oil touched $70 a barrel last week)."
Frankly I believe that this has turned very mean right now, but we are not yet seeing the full stripes of the struggle in our public papers and magazines. We are seeing it in other ways however.
