Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5928 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:36 pm Post subject: Iran & Venezuela Strengthen Ties/Seek OPEC Cuts
These two OPEC members, said to be producing oil flat out or nearly flat out, now want OPEC to make further production cuts to raise oil prices.
While not specifically stated here, Iran is seeking additional gasoline supplies and help with new refineries to reduce gasoline shortages.
Quote:
Iran and Venezuela back oil cuts
The presidents of Venezuela and Iran have called for a cut in oil production by the members of the Opec oil cartel.
Speaking in Caracas, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they wanted to co-ordinate the group to reduce the amount of crude oil on the market.
Mr Ahmadinejad is visiting Venezuela at the start of a tour aimed at boosting ties with Latin America.
Mr Chavez welcomed Mr Ahmadinejad to Caracas, calling him a "fighter for just causes, to a revolutionary and a brother".
He said the world oil market was oversupplied with crude, and said Opec should act to stop falling prices.
Iranian President Visits Venezuela to Strengthen Ties
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: January 14, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 13 — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived here on Saturday for talks with President Hugo Chavez, on the first leg of a Latin American visit to enhance Iran’s stature with governments where distrust of the Bush administration already runs deep.
Venezuela has a long history of close relations with Middle Eastern countries, dating to the founding of OPEC in Baghdad in 1960 by Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, in an effort to keep oil prices high. Mr. Chavez has strengthened those ties through overtures to Iran, and more recently Syria, where Venezuela and Iran have plans to build an oil refinery capable of processing 150,000 barrels a day.
For the time being, Venezuela’s relations with Iran have revolved around Mr. Chavez’s defense of Iran’s uranium enrichment plans, while the two countries deepen their cooperation in oil-related areas. For instance, Venezuela said last month that it would buy four oil tankers from Iran, part of Venezuela’s plan to increase its 21-ship tanker fleet through the acquisition of 42 additional vessels.
Iran and Venezuela, the world’s fourth- and fifth-largest oil exporters, are also exploring for oil together in Venezuela’s Orinoco region. And they have plans for a joint oil trading company, part of an ambition by Caracas and Tehran to price oil in euros instead of dollars in order to weaken the influence of the United States in the international oil market.
NY Times _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5928 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:22 am Post subject: Re: Iran & Venezuela Strengthen Ties/Seek OPEC Cuts
Quote:
Iran, Venezuela Urge OPEC to Keep Oil Production Low (Update1)
By Theresa Bradley
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Iran and Venezuela will urge other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to lower oil production in a bid to bolster prices as cooperation between the two nations grows.
``There's too much crude on the market, so we support the decision to cut production and preserve the price of oil,'' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said after signing 11 economic, energy and education accords with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Caracas.
Iran and Venezuela, OPEC's second- and third-largest oil producers, face ``the same imperialist push to control our oil resources,'' said Chavez, who this week stepped up plans to implement his own socialist program in Venezuela. ``Our two revolutions, the Islamic Revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, are in the end one, single fight.''
Much has been made of Iran's Achilles' heel, e.g., its limited refining capacity for gasoline to keep almost 5 million vehicles on the road. Three out of four cars are more than 30 years old or have logged 120,000 miles (President Ahmadinejad drives a battered 20-year-old Peugeot). Even though it pumps 10 percent of the world's oil, Iran still has to import 43 percent of its gasoline.
Iran's staunch ally Venezuela has pledged to make up whatever shortfall occurs. Cars and trucks are being converted to run on natural gas at over 100 conversion centers. The government believes this will save $5 billion a year on gasoline imports. Iran has the world's second largest natural gas reserve after Russia 16 percent of the world's total.
Washington Times _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Jul 12, 2006 Posts: 88 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:10 am Post subject: Re: Iran & Venezuela Strengthen Ties/Seek OPEC Cuts
How much is known about Iran's natural gas reserves? Are the official figures to be trusted, or is it a similar situation to the oil reserves, where the officially stated figures may be much higher than the true reserve figure? Are there potential problems in the years ahead with regards to Iran being able to meet contractual export obligations, such as with Europe?
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5928 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:55 pm Post subject: Re: Iran & Venezuela Strengthen Ties/Seek OPEC Cuts
Temperedoil - I don't have the answers to those questions, but I do know this - the long term situation in Iran is becoming grim, which has lead them to even publicly acknowledge at times that is why they are seeking nuclear power generation. It is surprising that Iran is now a net natural gas importer. By net I mean Iran is both importing and exporting NG, but takes in more than it send out.
Still Iran is believed by most energy analysts to have more remaining NG than any other country except Russia.
In general, Iran's oil production is not predicted to crash overnight - although the pace of decline will move from a slow rate to now to a steadily increasing one over time.
You might want to search for prior threads concerning the fact that Iran may stop exporting oil by 2015, and also, the thread which talks about how Iran temporarily stopped natural gas exports to Turkey.
Quote:
Business Middle East 16 Jan 2007
Iran: Not so reliable
Persistent problems with Iran's gas supplies to Turkey reflect a deeper malaise affecting the Iranian oil and gas industry--with little prospect of improvement
For the second winter in succession, Iran has been obliged to make its excuses to Turkey for sharply reducing flows of gas through the cross-border pipeline, owing to technical problems related to cold weather. Turkey was able to deal with the shortfall by increasing its purchases from Russia, and Iran appears to have fulfilled its promise to restore supplies within a few days. However, the difficulty that Iran is having in abiding by the terms of this contract raises questions both about Tehran's future gas export plans and about the country's domestic energy strategy.
Iran's oil minister, Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, said that he had apologised to his Turkish counterpart for the reduction in supplies, which was caused by a surge in demand from domestic consumers in response to a cold snap. Twelve months ago, Turkey suffered a similar interruption in supplies from Iran, which Turkish officials said at the time resulted from technical difficulties that Iranian engineers were facing in pumping gas in very cold weather.
Iran possesses the second-largest proven gas reserves in the world, amounting to 27trn cu metres, compared with Russia's 48trn cu metres and Qatar's 26trn cu metres. However, Iran is currently a net importer of natural gas, with supplies from Turkmenistan narrowly exceeding sales to Turkey. In 2005 Iran produced 87bn cu metres of natural gas and consumed 88.5bn cu metres. A significant portion of Iran's gas output is used for re-injection into mature oilfields in order to prolong their productive life, with the remainder sold to homes, industries and power stations (at heavily subsidised prices--the domestic tariff is about US$9 per 1,000 cu metres, equivalent to US$0.25 per million BTU).
The first two phases of South Pars (2 and 3) eventually started up in early 2003, having been developed by France's Total. The following year saw the inauguration of Phase 1 (involving the local Petropars) and the start-up of Phases 4 and 5 (with Italy's Eni); phases 6-8 (Norway's Statoil) and 9-10 (South Korea's Lucky Group) are scheduled to come on stream within the next year. Phases 11-14 have been allocated for LNG and gas-to-liquids (GTL) projects, but there has been only limited progress with these schemes.
[Sorry, Business Middle East, not available now] _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
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