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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (47102)	10/19/2004 12:49:18 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

A senior Iranian parliamentarian on Sunday urged the government to speed up efforts to exploit joint hydrocarbon reserves, stressing that some 80 percent of the country's oil fields remains unexplored. "Iran's oil and gas industries are such that it is profitable for foreign firms which...are ready to participate in any sector," Kamal Daneshyar said. He added that poverty, corruption and unemployment are chiefly the result of insufficient foreign investment in the country. He called on the government to reduce bank profit rates to zero in a bid to encourage greater investment in all economic areas. "The rise in inflation which will follow a cut in bank profit rates could be brought under control by boosting production and promoting industrial activities," he said, adding that foreign investment is crucial to the development of Iran's oil fields. The official, however, admitted that the country still had to improve its domestic knowhow in field of oil and gas exploration and utilization. © Iranian.ws

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (47102)	10/19/2004 6:32:09 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

$60 a Barrel? Sell Big Oil! By Rich Smith Yesterday, we looked at the auto majors' plans to rapidly ramp up their offerings of hybrid gas-electric vehicles over the next three years. These plans have a couple of underpinnings. First and foremost, the guys over in Detroit smell profits -- not diesel fumes -- in the news of how popular hybrids such as Honda's (NYSE: HMC - News) Civic and Toyota's (NYSE: TM - News) Prius have become. And it's whetting their appetite for a piece of the hybrid pie.Think about it, people. The higher the price for any product, the lower the demand. Some products -- such as gasoline -- have pretty inelastic demand curves, granted. But ultimately, if you raise the price of any product high enough, people will begin to cut back on their consumption. And vicariously, that's exactly what Detroit (and its Japanese competitors) are doing for American oil consumers. By making fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles a viable option for car buyers, "Big Auto" has started America along a trend curve toward reducing our demand for Big Oil's gasoline. Investors should take note of the trend. Over time, sales of hybrid vehicles will rise; consequently, sales of gasoline will stagnate or fall. How big of a trend will this be, and how much could it affect Big Oil? Big, and a lot. Let's look at some numbers: A recent study done by consulting firm Booz Allen predicts that within five years, 20% of the cars on America's roads could be hybrids; within a decade, the percentage could reach 80%. Two popular hybrids now on the market that have nonhybrid analogs -- the Ford (NYSE: F - News) Escape and Honda Civic -- get as much as 50% better gas mileage than their nonhybrid counterparts. America currently accounts for 40% of worldwide gasoline sales. Multiply those numbers -- 20% x 50% x 40% -- and worldwide gasoline consumption could slow by 4% over the next five years and by 16% over the next decade. Sure, absolute consumption will rise to fight this trend as new car buyers are born and put more cars on the road. But the more time goes by, the greater the chance that those new cars will be hybrids themselves. biz.yahoo.com