Peak Oil Passnotes: Empires That Never Die

Quite rightly human beings do not generally like being ruled over by people from other countries. We could run through a whole host of examples from Vietnam to Ireland to Hungary, Ukraine and Estonia. People also do not like being under the influence of other country


The U.S. business and political community – in reality the same set of people as they generally tend to be in all countries – has rallied around the idea. Like Venezuela, Nigeria, Bolivia, the U.K., Spain, Norway and others, they have practised resource nationalism. As obvious examples the company Dubai Ports was forbidden from purchasing facilities in the U.S., this when Dubai is one of the most benign and westernised patches of the middle east you can find.

When the Chinese National Oil Company (CNOOC) [NYSE:CEO] outbid an American company Chevron [NYSE:CVX], in an attempt to purchase the mainly Asian focussed Unocal the U.S. political elite wasted no time in branding this a threat to national security. As if somehow China might invade the U.S. via a network of oil storage depots. After all we know the story of Troy do we not?

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