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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KyrosL who wrote (111932)	8/18/2003 9:01:21 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Respond to of 281500

It seems to me that Germany and Japan, who import all their oil (unlike the US), have a great economic interest to see Iraqi oil production restored ASAP, so my guess is that their gesture is not entirely altruistic. That last remark is an understatement... the civilized world's economy in general really depends crucially on this resource due to the extraordinary percentage of the planet's oil that the region contains. While it won't bring civilization to an end if the Saudi oil production were sabotaged, as is happening to Iraq's, it wouldn't be much fun for anybody - except handful of terrorists with delusions of grandeur.

To: KyrosL who wrote (111932)	8/19/2003 1:37:18 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 281500

Kyros, the high oil prices are excellent news for BP, Shell, Exxon etc, who will be reporting record profits. Cheap oil is not good for everyone. The USA is not a single entity. It is made up of millions of competing interests. Jingoists get caught up in the fog of battle and forget that "for the country" means, more usually, for those who are in charge at the moment and their mates. The companies who own expensive North Sea and Alaskan oil and mainland USA oil are dependent on high oil prices for their profits. They do NOT want floods of cheap Iraqi oil on the market unless they are the ones who own it. I dare say that because Tony Blair helped King George II, BP will be in the running for lots of lovely oil contracts. Elf and Total will not. As you wrote, Japan needs all the cheap oil they can get. Only the nuclear reactor owners in Japan dislike cheap oil [and of course some other interests] = it's competition. Mqurice