The Shi’ite rebellion in Saudi Arabia and oil

We’re getting more considered commentary from the ‘other’ side. I have little doubt that the Saudis are lying – they have plenty of reason to. Comments from Mike Ruppert: The excellent report from Radio New Zealand adds much more detail to recent events in KSA. We can now say the following with certainty based on […]

Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei Leads In Iran Parliamentary Election, As Iran Announces Huge Oil Field Discovery

The results from Iran’s parliamentary election, whose outcome will have virtually no impact on the country’s foreign, nuclear or Iran policy, and thus change the country’s course vis-a-vis Israel and the US, are in, and following a supposedly high turnout as big as 64% which critics have blasted as a sham (unlike American low turnouts […]

Iran Sanctions Don’t Determine China’s Oil Needs

Sanctions imposed on Iran won’t influence China’s oil imports from the country, the nation’s former energy head said. “China’s crude import costs may be pushed up by tension in Iran as oil prices could rise on supply concern,” Zhang Guobao, former head of China’s National Energy Administration, said at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference […]

BP settles Gulf spill lawsuits for at least $7.8B

BP’s settlement of lawsuits filed by more than 100,000 victims of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history goes a long way toward resolving pending claims. But the question remains, will Americans who live along the Gulf of Mexico go for it? BP expects to pay out $7.8 billion and anticipates that a separate […]

Putin urges joint Arctic scientific council with Canada

Russian leader Vladimir Putin challenged Canada to set up a joint scientific council with his country to investigate issues over Arctic sovereignty and help the United Nations draw new boundaries in the northern regions, where fast-melting ice is opening channels for oil drilling, mining and shipping. There are Canadian concerns that Russia is exploring the […]

Demonstrations in Eastern Saudi continue; posters call for burning of oil!

  Demonstrations continued today in oil-rich Eastern Saudi Arabia. Above, a photo of a demonstrator in Qatif raising posters in solidarity with Yemen. The smaller poster, left, shows an oil barrel; the word oil was written in both Arabic and English, and then a hand was setting fire to it, stating underneath “a message to […]

CNN: T. Boone Pickens’ 5-year plan for energy prices

Billionaire energy investor T. Boone Pickens provides his plan to drastically cut foreign oil imports.

China’s One-Child Policy Dilemma for Leaders

As the world’s largest national congress meets in Beijing to prepare for new leadership, likely successor Xi Jinping will inherit a roadblock to growth dating back almost to the era of Mao Zedong: the one-child policy. Implemented in 1979 to alleviate poverty, the restriction on family size will cut the number of 15- to 24-year-olds, […]

John Michael Greer: The Trajectory of Empires

The structure of empire anatomized in last week’s post is a source of considerable strength for any imperial nation that manages to get it in place, and a source of even more considerable difficulty for anyone who opposes the resulting empire and hopes to bring it down. Nonetheless, empires do fall; every empire in history […]

Iran Suffers ‘Crippling Effect’ of Sanctions

The cascade of U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Iran is crippling its ability to export oil and conduct trade, hitting the Gulf state’s economy and stoking internal dissent, sanctions specialists and U.S. officials say. An array of restrictions on banking, shipping, insurance, ports, trade, commodities and energy transactions and ventures have severed or complicated […]

Wyoming Introduces ‘Doomsday Bill’ To Prepare For Collapse of Federal Government

Lawmakers in Wyoming have introduced a bill that would compel the state to prepare for a complete collapse of the federal government, laying plans for an alternate currency, a standing army raised via a military draft, and an aircraft carrier. “House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a […]

Presidents and the Price of Oil

Even if we go with more offshore drilling, we have to accept that it takes years for one of these rigs to be sited and produce oil. Photo: Agencia Brasil If you’re a primary voter, you’ve got your pick of candidates who’ll promise to bring down the price of gasoline. Unfortunately, whoever wins is going […]

A Policy of Energy Starvation in Germany: A Cautionary Tale

Last spring, Chancellor Angela Merkel set Germany on course to eliminate nuclear power in favor of renewable energy sources. Now, though, several industries are suffering as electricity prices rapidly rise. Many companies are having to close factories or move abroad. _Spiegel When governments embrace the green fantasy, their economies inevitably suffer. Germany’s government went even […]

As Pentagon Sends Reinforcements To Straits Of Hormuz, Iraq Redux Looms

A few days ago, before the latest breakout in crude sent Brent to all time highs in GBP and EUR (and Asian Tapis in USD just shy of all time highs), we said that “we hope our readers stocked up on gasoline. Because things are about to get uglier. And by that we mean more […]

Ban on Iran oil shakes Obama admin

President Obama has blamed tensions with Iran as the reason behind rising oil prices in the US causing the US to buy oil at above peak oil prices and use its reserves. Interview with Mr. Nader Mokhtari, columnist and political commentator, Tehran

Oil Disruption is Zooming and Global Panic Awaits

Oil is up to $110 and it is on a roll. The last time oil went in this direction, it caused a slowing in the global economy that led to a global financial panic. What’s causing it?  Peak oil, Chinese growth and lots of potential oil disruption.  Pretty much the same factors that caused it […]

Japanese Govt in talks with U.S. to import natural gas

The government has asked the U.S. government to grant permission for the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in the United States to Japan, according to sources. The government is trying to diversify energy supply sources to cope with shortfalls in energy supply after the shutdowns of nuclear reactors in the nation and the […]

IAEA Says Iran Talks Fail on Denied Request

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Iran to defuse tensions over an alleged nuclear-weapons program, were denied access to a military base and said the talks “couldn’t finalize a way forward.” The IAEA inspectors were refused permission to visit the Parchin base during two days of talks that ended yesterday. Iran’s ambassador to […]

White House Comments On Surging Gasoline Prices

Just when we thought that when it comes to nonsensical announcements Europe is second to none, here comes the White House and takes the cake: WHITE HOUSE SAYS RISE IN GASOLINE PRICES CAUSED BY VARIETY OF GLOBAL FACTORS, INCLUDING UNREST IN SOME PARTS OF WORLD, FAST GROWTH IN OTHERS – RTRS Uhm, would the “unrestful” […]

Iran offers extra oil, India not keen

India is pushing refiners to reduce oil imports from Iran by at least 10 percent for 2012/13, sources at two of the companies said, as tighter Western sanctions impact Iran’s trade. India is Iran’s second-biggest market after China and the Islamic Republic provides about 12 percent or about 370,000 bpd of the Asian economy’s oil […]

U.S. official: Signs pointing to increasing likelihood of Israeli strike on Iran

U.S. wants Israel to wait a few months in order to give the international sanctions against Iran a chance before deciding on an attack. As U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon arrived in Saturday night to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue with top Israeli officials, a U.S. official has told Haaretz that all the messages […]

Iran cuts off oil supplies to Britain, France

The move was confirmed by the country’s Oil Ministry, with the spokesman saying that Iran will be “selling its oil to new customers”. The statement has been posted on the Ministry’s shana.ir website. It appears to be a response to the European Union decision to ban Iranian oil imports, as part of ongoing sanctions designed […]

Cutting costs at DOE, and getting some people annoyed in the process

For people who cover the US federal government and its sprawling bureaucracy for a living, the roll-out of the president’s annual budget request can be a bit like Christmas and a bit like an Easter-egg hunt. Trawling through the thousands of pages of budget documents and sitting through budget briefing can yield charming revelations–and sometimes […]

Big Oil Wants to Kill the Keystone XL Pipeline

With America on the verge of achieving energy independence in the next five years by dramatically expanding domestic energy production, why should anyone be surprised that it’s Big Oil money that’s out to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline to prevent competition. Most Americans were stunned when the U.S. State Department on January 18th denied the […]

Update on Middle Eastern Wars

Since the U.S. Has Been Planning Regime Change In Syria For Decades, I Guess the Little Things Like Working On the Same Side as Al Qaeda – or the Risk of Picking a Fight with Nuclear Powers China and Russia – Are Ignored AP reports: Top U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Thursday that al-Qaida of […]

Tactics and Strategy at the Strait of Hormuz

Afonso de Albuquerque arrived at the Indian Ocean in 1506 commanding a squadron of five war vessels integrated in Tristão da Cunha’s Armada. In the summer of 1507, after the conquest of Socotra, the Armada’s main objective, Afonso de Albuquerque parted on its own commanding a fleet of six vessels and 500 marines to take […]

US carefully mulls whether to okay LNG exports

The U.S. Energy Department will not make a decision on future liquefied natural gas exports until it has weighed the potential consequences of sending U.S. gas abroad, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Thursday. Chu said there was concern that exporting the nation’s surplus natural gas could lead to higher prices, but that had to […]

Libyan militias ‘out of control,’ Amnesty International says

Armed militias in Libya are committing human rights abuses with impunity, threatening to destabilize the country and hindering its efforts to rebuild, Amnesty International said Thursday. Militias have tortured detainees, targeted migrants and displaced entire communities in revenge attacks, according to a report the organization released a year after the start of popular uprisings that […]

Noam Chomsky: American Decline in Perspective, Part 2

In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, “losses” continued to mount elsewhere.  In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination, another serious loss. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible […]

Russian Army Chief: Decision On Iran Attack To Be Made By Summer

Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Nikolai Makarov says that a decision by the U.S. and Israel on whether or not to launch a military attack on Iran will be taken before the summer. “Iran, of cause, is a sore spot. Some kind of decision should be taken, probably nearer to […]

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