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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (823075)	12/16/2014 6:11:23 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1578178

OPEC gives every intention of keeping their prices low enough to discourage frackers and coal tar......they can still make a good profit. But fracking can be seen as an excellent development if it forces OPEC to keep it's prices low. Also reducing fracking is good for the environment... Coal tar will the be the first to crash taking Keystone with it.

To: i-node who wrote (823075)	12/16/2014 8:57:26 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578178

Saudi Arabia is playing chicken with its oil Mohamad Bazzi cnbc.com 13 Hours Ago In August 1973, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat paid a secret visit to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to meet with King Faisal. Sadat was preparing for war with Israel, and he needed Saudi Arabia to use its most powerful weapon: oil. Until then, King Faisal had been reluctant for the Arab members of OPEC to use the "oil weapon." But as the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war unfolded, the Arab oil producers raised prices, cut production and imposed an embargo on oil exports to punish the United States for its support of Israel. Without Saudi Arabia, the oil embargo would not have gotten very far. Read More Brent below $60: Prepare for 'dramatic' spending cuts Today, Saudi Arabia is once again using its "oil weapon," but instead of driving up prices and cutting supply, it's doing the reverse. In the face of a global slide in oil prices since June, the kingdom has refused to cut its production, which would help to drive prices back up. Instead, the Saudis led the charge to prevent OPEC from cutting production at the cartel's last meeting on Nov 27. The consequences of Saudi policy are impossible to ignore. After two years of stable prices at around $105 to $110 a barrel, Brent blend, the international benchmark, fell from $112 a barrel in June to around $65 on Friday. "What is the reason for the United States and some U.S. allies wanting to drive down the price of oil?" Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro asked rhetorically in October. His answer? "To harm Russia." That is partially true, but Saudi Arabia's gambit is more complex. The kingdom has two targets in its latest oil war: it is trying to squeeze U.S. shale oil—which requires higher prices to remain competitive with conventional production—out of the market. More broadly, the Saudis are also punishing two rivals, Russia and Iran, for their support of Bashar al-Assad's regime in the Syrian civil war. Since the Syrian uprising began in 2011, regional and world powers have played out a series of proxy battles there. While Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been arming many of the Syrian rebels, the Iranian regime—and to a lesser extent, Russia—have provided the weapons and funding to keep Assad in power.