We cannot drill our way out of this oil crisis. Since 2000, oil companies working in the U.S. have doubled the number of wells drilled per year.
Although increased drilling has added new oil to the nation's supply, it has not done so fast enough to offset the terminal decline of existing fields.
We are going to have to import more of our oil. Period.
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:12 am Post subject: Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America
A new book due out in the U.S. in January. It's already in print in the U.K. I haven't read it yet and the following is the publisher's blurb.
Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America
Roger Howard
The US sees itself as being locked into a confrontation with Iran, its number one enemy since the invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. But, as Roger Howard argues in this compelling and provocative new book, by attempting to isolate Iran, the US may in fact be undermining its own power. For if the US forces the rest of the world to choose between Iran and America, Iran has a trump card to play: some of the largest deposits of gas and petroleum on the planet. With global energy demands at an all-time high and supplies becoming increasingly inaccessible, Iran’s oil and gas have already started to lure former US allies such as Pakistan and India away from American influence. Over the next decade, Iran’s energy supplies look set to radically reformulate the security and diplomatic relationships of Asia and the Middle East. Furthermore, because of US trade embargoes on Iran, it is only the US’s rivals, such as China, who are able to fully exploit Iran’s natural resources, thus powering a new alliance of countries which will act as a counterweight to US global power. By pursuing such a hostile agenda to a country with so much petro-clout, America is, according to Howard, writing its obituary as the world’s only superpower.
Roger Howard is a freelance journalist specialising in defence and energy issues in the Middle East. He is a contributor to The New Statesman and Spectator magazines, Middle East International and Jane's Intelligence Review.
HARDBACK, I.B Tauris, ISBN 1845112490, 224 pages, £13.20 (amazon.co.uk), $39.95 (amazon.com) _________________ No rights without duties, no duties without rights. -- IWA, 1864
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject: Re: Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America
I like this debate.
I will disagree. Just look at 1950's. US and GBR led an embargo that prevented any oil from being shipped from Iran. Plenty of countries wanted to buy Iran's oil, but when US stated that they will retaliate, others stepped back. The same will happen. The only reason US embargo on Iran is not working is that US does not retaliate other states for trading with Iran. When US does, I fail to see many states crossing the line. Especially, Japan and China will not cross that line. They will only cross if they see US afraid to retaliate.
I have yet seen any time in history that states went against US will due to economics. The states that defy US embargo have always done it as a political statement and not economic one. This author is arguing that economics will lend Iran greater strength, which is flaw. I challenge anyone to present a real world situation where a state defy US and face US sanctions, yet preceded due to economic incentives.
Joined: Sep 06, 2004 Posts: 5315 Location: Smalltown New Zealand
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:26 pm Post subject: Re: Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America
nth wrote:
I like this debate.
I will disagree. Just look at 1950's.
Wasn't that before the US peaked and the US was a swing producer and could ensure that nobody really went without? _________________ "Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
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