Egypt is sitting on at least 4 billion barrels of oil, and a ton of natural gas. Offshore under the Red Sea, oil drilling has been finding oil deposits in the last year.
Curiously, the reason Egypt hasn’t exploited the oil under the land along the Mediterranean is most of that land has never been cleared of landmines from World War 2.
It ain’t about democracy – it’s about what happens if Egypt starts exporting large amounts of oil or if the government demands that most of the value for the oil stays in the country and isn’t taken out by European oil companies. The Shah of Iran was put into power by Western interests in the 1950s when Iran tried to nationalize their oil resources.
Here we go again.
Oh, and Sudan is also drilling for oil – I’m sure that’s totally unrelated to Sudan splitting into two countries.
Egypt (and the Suez Canal) is about to fall into the hands of Muslim fanatics. On the other side of the Red Sea, the Saudi city of Jeddah is the site of a burgeoning protest movement. On the other side of the Persian Gulf, Iran has been a Muslim theocracy since 1979 (thanks, Mr. Peanut).
Two major waterways that see a lot of oil tanker traffic.
Don’t worry. There’s still our offshore drill…uh…never mind.
North Sea crude is already $10 a barrel higher than West Texas…
So let’s say tankers can’t get through the Suez for a while – who is hurt?
Oil to China isn’t affected – the tankers to Asia don’t go through the area…. aren’t affected as long as Saudi Aarabi doesn’t fall… and the Strait of Hormuz stays open….
Oil to Europe is afffected big time. Tankers aren’t going to go around Africa to get to France. WIthout Middle East oil, where can Europe get oil? Oh, Russia or pipelines controlled by Russia. Good thing there is no trouble brewing in Azerbeijan along the route of the pipeline from the Caspian Sea that bypasses Russia. Oh wait, what did I hear in the news a few days ago…
Well, Europe could get oil from Nigeria, Mexico or Canada…. Venezuela is a no-go because their crude requires different types of refnining that Europe doesn’t have. and then there is Iraq…. and Iran….
The Tea Party is playing checkers against an opponent who is playing 3D chess.
North Sea oil broke through $100/barrel today
I find it interesting that all these rebellions are being blamed on WikiLeaks by the DBM (Drive By Media). Who makes these determinations anyway?
I thought it might possibly be a certain Head of State who went around apologizing for the USA, and basically letting anyone with a 70 IQ know that we wouldn’t be getting in the way of these Muslim, er .., I mean …, Arab … (dang it again) …, er, freedom loving peoples.
Why can’t the DBM ask the simple question: Is Iran free after their Muslim, er …, I mean …, Arab … (dang it again) …, er, freedom loving peoples rebelled? And why are these “freed” nations that are so chock full of oil always so impoverished?
I need to inject an important correction – but it’s entirely understandable if you have been listening to the DBM.
Iranians are Persions, not Arabs. The emnity between Persions and Arabs is about the same level of ethnic hatred as Arabs have towards Jews. I bristle every time I hear a glib pretty girl on Fox say something like “Well, the Iranian and Iraqi shiites get along because they are both shiites”.
Egyptians are not Arabs. While Egyptions speak Arabic due to having been converted to Islam, Egyptians do not consider themselves to be ethnic Arabs and vice versa, so Egypt and Iran have more in common than Iran and Saudi Arabia. A loose analogy is that in The United States we speak English, but that doesn’t make us English.
Golly. Tried twice to reply – and poof off it goes into the void …
Things vanishing was the reason I killed P2 last time. Don’t write a big long book.
Oil money is a curse – just look to Iraq. What happens is with a flow of money coming in for no reason, the governments get into the handout business. The people grow to expect that the oil money will feed them, pay for their housing, pay for foreign workers to clean their toilets, etc.. and after a generation or two the young people have no skills or opportunity other than to be angry and throw rocks.
The most abundant element in the whole of the known universe is hydrogen. It’s octane rating is 130+ and it burns pollutant free (except libtards will claim that water, like CO2, is a pollutant). It’s not ready yet as a cheap and endless fuel resource because difficult problems remain to be solved, especially economic production, safe and efficient storage and delivery … all thorny but solvable issues. Perhaps a few trillion in “stimulus” and a Manhattan Project type of focus could help. Then let the Islamic loony cavemen drown in their GD oil.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the whole of the known universe. Its octane rating is 130+. Invest in overcoming production, delivery and storage problems and access an endless, pollution-free energy source. The day that happens, the Islamic lunatics can choke on their oil and go back to murdering and kidnapping each other as they have for centuries. And libtards can then call water vapor a pollutant…
Here is the problem with Hydrogen as I understand it. There are two relatively painless ways to gather it – you can take water, and split it into hydrogen and oxygen, using electric current. The problem with hydrolysis is that the way atoms work, it is going to turn a significant portion of that energy into heat which makes it less efficient than just using the electricity directly.
Most commericial hydrogen today is made from natural gas – it’s a simple process and natural gas is abundent in the U.S. – but when you split out the hydrogen, you’re left with CO2. You either throw that in the air (if you think CO2 is not a danger/pollutant) or you have to sequester the carbon. Old empty oil wells are a great place to pump CO2, which is why the oil companies (especially BP) didn’t fight hard against CO2 bans. There is a lot of money to be made in sequestration.
The problem with hydrogen is that it is too reactive. The reason it doesn”t occur naturally is that it either binds to oxygen (commonly water) or to carbon (suger, wood, alcohol, oil, or methane gas). If anyone can figure out where to find energy cheaper than when it squirts out of the ground into a tank, let us know.
Sorry for the dupe posts. Those were the ones that seemed to vanish into the void that I mentioned. A Firefox issue, I presume. And yes, thorny problems, indeed, but not nearly as thorny as the nation in thrall. We need to get on it.
The posts “vanished” because they were flagged as possible spam. No idea why.
Not only is the TEA Party playing checkers. As Hugh Hewitt pointed out, our lawmakers are in love with ethanol. One presumed POTUS candidate in John Thune is a fan of ethanol subsidies. This was George W. Bush’s pet project, and it shows no sign of slowing down with Obama. Interest in hydraulic fracking seems to be dying down.
The good news? A federal judge has declared the Obama administration’s decision to ignore his order to lift the offshore drilling ban is contemptuous. I still think we’re looking at a massive petroleum price shock that will make 2008 look minor in comparison. And then the rationing…
How about that Chevy Volt?
That’s the other P2 problem…. With the way I’m doing the login, if you click on “login to reply”, after it login you in, the reply window is under the wrong post/comment. It’s very easy to accidentally create a post when you only intended to comment.
I think I just heard they approved bumping ethanol up to 15%. Ethanol blends get significantly fewer MPG than straight gasoline.
All this talk about increased ethanol production is what makes me call BS on our lawmakers’ push toward environmentally friendly energy options. Increased ethanol production, despite what our lawmakers claim, wouldn’t be all that environmentally friendly. The fertilizer used in ethanol production has caused the depletion of oxygen in large areas of the ocean near the shores where fresh water drains and renders those areas basically uninhabitable for animal life. This issue was originally discovered back in the 70’s, I think, and has only worsened since then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_zone_(ecology)
I know that’s slightly off topic from the original article, but I like to mention it whenever I get a chance especially since I never hear or read any news related to this subject. Apologies if I’ve mentioned it before.
*** sets hook .***
I wrote about the ethanol dead zone in June
http://streamingradioguide.com/radiochat/2010/06/03/ways-deepwater-horizon-is-not-like-exxon/
I’m pretty sure I wrote about it in the earlier blog… It’s a mystery why it doesn’t get more coverage. I feel pretty sure media companies and PBS wouldn’t let ADM’s advertising budget get in the way of exposing such an important issue. The death of much of the Gulf Coast fishing / seafood business started long before BP had an oil leak