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Warning: Sentiment Grows in Oil-Hungry U.S. for Extended Middle East
Presence
By Sherwood Ross
Created Oct 31 2007 - 8:29am
Sentiment is growing in both political parties for extending the U.S.
military presence in Iraq in order "to ensure the safe flow of petroleum,"
according to the Nov. 12th issue of The Nation magazine.
Not only is President Bush protracting U.S. engagement in Iraq but the two
leading Democratic contenders for his job, Senators Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama, seek to keep a U.S. military presence in the region.
Clinton told The New York Times Iraq is "right in the heart of the oil
region" and thus "it is directly in opposition to our interests" for it to
become a pawn of Iran or failed state. Obama has also spoken of the need to
maintain a robust US military presence in Iraq and the surrounding area,
writes Michael Klare, the magazine's defense correspondent and professor of
peace and world security studies at Hampshire College.
Senior officials in both parties, he notes, "are calling for a reinvigorated
U.S. military role in the protection of foreign energy deliveries."
Klare writes no dramatic change in U.S. policy in the Gulf region should be
expected from the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic. "If
anything," he says, "we should expect an increase in the use of military
force to protect the overseas flow of oil, as the threat level rises along
with the need for new investment to avert even further reductions in global
supplies."
The likelihood of a continuing U.S. presence in the Middle East is framed
against a backdrop of growing demand for oil. The global output of
"liquids," the U.S. Energy Department says, using its new term for oil, is
expected to rise from 84 million barrels of oil equivalent(mboe) per day in
2005 to about 117.6 mboe in 2030. And that's virtually the same as
anticipated demand, Klare reports.
The International Energy Agency has predicted world economic activity will
grow on average by 4.5 percent per year by 2012 and world oil demand will
grow by 2.2 percent annually, pushing consumption up from 86- to 96-million
barrels per day.
Almost all of the increase, Klare writes, will have to come from Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Kazakhstan and
Venezuela, "countries that do not inspire the sort of investor confidence
that will be needed to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into new
drilling rigs, pipelines and other essential infrastructure."
Not surprisingly, oil's price has jumped spectacularly, crossing the $80 per
barrel "psychological barrier" on the New York Mercantile Exchange in
September and then upwards to as high as $90. Many reasons have been cited
for this but "the underlying reality is that most oil-producing countries
are pumping at maximum capacity and finding it increasingly difficult to
boost production in the face of rising international demand," Klare writes.
He quotes Peter Hitchens of the New York brokerage Teather & Greenwood as
saying, "It's becoming more and more difficult to bring (oil) projects in on
time and on budget."
The result is liable to be the peaking of oil production, triggering an
intensified scramble for conventional petroleum resources "with troops being
rushed from one oil-producing hot spot to another," Klare predicts.
This gloomy forecast is causing the world's oil majors, notably Chevron, to
turn their attention to Canada's Alberta province, with its bountiful tar
sands, a gooey substance that can be converted into synthetic petroleum. The
rub here, though, Klare says, is this can be done "only with enormous effort
and expense."
What's more, extracting Alberta's tar sands is environmentally destructive,
as it takes vast quantities of energy to recover the bitumen and convert it
into a usable liquid. This process releases three times as much greenhouse
gas as in conventional oil production, leaving in its wake toxic water
supplies and empty moonscapes.
Klare concludes, "The safest and most morally defensible course is to
repudiate any 'consensus' calling for the use of force to protect overseas
petroleum supplies and to strive to conserve what remains of the world's oil
by using less of it."
_______
About author Sherwood Ross is an American reporter who has worked for major
American newspapers and magazines as well as international wire services. To
comment on this article or arrange for speaking engagements:
sherwoodr1@yahoo.com [1]
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
Presence
By Sherwood Ross
Created Oct 31 2007 - 8:29am
Sentiment is growing in both political parties for extending the U.S.
military presence in Iraq in order "to ensure the safe flow of petroleum,"
according to the Nov. 12th issue of The Nation magazine.
Not only is President Bush protracting U.S. engagement in Iraq but the two
leading Democratic contenders for his job, Senators Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama, seek to keep a U.S. military presence in the region.
Clinton told The New York Times Iraq is "right in the heart of the oil
region" and thus "it is directly in opposition to our interests" for it to
become a pawn of Iran or failed state. Obama has also spoken of the need to
maintain a robust US military presence in Iraq and the surrounding area,
writes Michael Klare, the magazine's defense correspondent and professor of
peace and world security studies at Hampshire College.
Senior officials in both parties, he notes, "are calling for a reinvigorated
U.S. military role in the protection of foreign energy deliveries."
Klare writes no dramatic change in U.S. policy in the Gulf region should be
expected from the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic. "If
anything," he says, "we should expect an increase in the use of military
force to protect the overseas flow of oil, as the threat level rises along
with the need for new investment to avert even further reductions in global
supplies."
The likelihood of a continuing U.S. presence in the Middle East is framed
against a backdrop of growing demand for oil. The global output of
"liquids," the U.S. Energy Department says, using its new term for oil, is
expected to rise from 84 million barrels of oil equivalent(mboe) per day in
2005 to about 117.6 mboe in 2030. And that's virtually the same as
anticipated demand, Klare reports.
The International Energy Agency has predicted world economic activity will
grow on average by 4.5 percent per year by 2012 and world oil demand will
grow by 2.2 percent annually, pushing consumption up from 86- to 96-million
barrels per day.
Almost all of the increase, Klare writes, will have to come from Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Kazakhstan and
Venezuela, "countries that do not inspire the sort of investor confidence
that will be needed to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into new
drilling rigs, pipelines and other essential infrastructure."
Not surprisingly, oil's price has jumped spectacularly, crossing the $80 per
barrel "psychological barrier" on the New York Mercantile Exchange in
September and then upwards to as high as $90. Many reasons have been cited
for this but "the underlying reality is that most oil-producing countries
are pumping at maximum capacity and finding it increasingly difficult to
boost production in the face of rising international demand," Klare writes.
He quotes Peter Hitchens of the New York brokerage Teather & Greenwood as
saying, "It's becoming more and more difficult to bring (oil) projects in on
time and on budget."
The result is liable to be the peaking of oil production, triggering an
intensified scramble for conventional petroleum resources "with troops being
rushed from one oil-producing hot spot to another," Klare predicts.
This gloomy forecast is causing the world's oil majors, notably Chevron, to
turn their attention to Canada's Alberta province, with its bountiful tar
sands, a gooey substance that can be converted into synthetic petroleum. The
rub here, though, Klare says, is this can be done "only with enormous effort
and expense."
What's more, extracting Alberta's tar sands is environmentally destructive,
as it takes vast quantities of energy to recover the bitumen and convert it
into a usable liquid. This process releases three times as much greenhouse
gas as in conventional oil production, leaving in its wake toxic water
supplies and empty moonscapes.
Klare concludes, "The safest and most morally defensible course is to
repudiate any 'consensus' calling for the use of force to protect overseas
petroleum supplies and to strive to conserve what remains of the world's oil
by using less of it."
_______
About author Sherwood Ross is an American reporter who has worked for major
American newspapers and magazines as well as international wire services. To
comment on this article or arrange for speaking engagements:
sherwoodr1@yahoo.com [1]
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
