<Shutting Down Heavy? The Oil Drum On practical solutions>

89 comments on Mid-week open thread...

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stranger on October 12, 2005 - 6:50pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
I wonder which happend first, Iran's  plans to open their own oil bourse or the US increased pressure and sabre-rattling towards Iran?  I ask this because it seems to me like the worlds 2nd largest oil producer selling oil for Euros(or any currency other than USD) instead of USD is a much bigger and more eminent threat to the US(especially considering the state of the USD and economy) than Iran's nuclear program. I don't know much about these topics. How close is Iran to producing nuclear WMD's? Will their oil bourse be a significant competitor to London and NYC? Has all this been covered before? I have questions, who's got answers?
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stranger on October 12, 2005 - 6:53pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
In other words, is the US using Iran's nuclear program as an excuse to pressure them out of opening their oil market?
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mw on October 12, 2005 - 7:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
From a nationalistic perspective, having oil trade 'in country' of production sounds ideal. Countries like Iran, Venezuela, are likely to be more protectionist and want to extract more value out of a declining resource as time goes on.

I'm sure one day much of the refined gasoline in the world will come from producer nations, not from domestic consumer/importer nations.

Gonna happen in the Phillipines soon...

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William on October 12, 2005 - 10:22pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
"I'm sure one day much of the refined gasoline in the world will come from producer nations"
I'm going to have to differ on that. Refining the gasoline is a matter of capital and efficiency, and that is one thing our market system has an ample supply of. Most resource economies tend to remain resource economies until the supplies run tight, whereas resource-poor nations (ie Japan), tend to dominate the manufacturing of secondary products.
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DuncanK on October 12, 2005 - 8:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Sounds like you need to read this article that was quoted on EnergyBulletin at the beginning of last month.

I can't remember if it talked about what came first; the Chicken (US aggression) or the Egg (Iranian Oil Bourse plans).

According to this article, though, there is a lot more here than meets the eye.

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stranger on October 12, 2005 - 11:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thanks for the link to the great article.  Unfortunately it didn't answer my first question and it didnt really show how much of an effect on the USD an Iranian oil bourse would have.  I guess i'll have to read the author's book to go more in depth(and maybe take some econ. classes). I highly doubt that the US would overtly intervene in Iran.  It would be suicide.
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billyt on October 12, 2005 - 9:22pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
i'm also very curious and worried about the impact of an iranian oil bourse on US dollar hegemony.
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Yosemite Sam on October 12, 2005 - 10:28pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Don't forget that revelations of Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.) based on her insider information on the machinations of the neocon planners in the DoD.  Her specific charge was that, amongst this group, the casus belli for war with Iraq was Saddam's pricing of his oil in Euro's.  

Richard Clark in Petrodollar Warfare connects a lot of dots regarding this view.  I found the book hard to lay donw.

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89 comments on Mid-week open thread...

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