April 11, 2012, Iran follows through on threat to cut off oil to Germany, now Italy is next.
Iran also announced sanctions against 100 European Union companies. Sasan Khodaei, Deputy President of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, said the companies will no longer be able to sell products to Iran.
One reason for the sanctions is that Iran is now able to make the products for themselves.
April 10, 2012, Iran has officially halted oil exports to Spain and Greece.
The official government announcement comes after Iran canceled oil shipments to two Greek companies on April 5.
Back on March 16 Iran had named the next countries on its oil export ban list. Those countries are Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. This is in retaliation for the up coming European Union oil sanctions that go into effect on July 1.
Iran had already halted oil shipments to France and United Kingdom back in February.
According to an April 10 Reuters report, Iran is now considering halting oil exports to Germany as well.
According to Azerbaijani media, Iran’s Oil Ministry is confirming that their oil exports are dropping due to Western oil sanctions.
Iranian oil officials say Japan has made the biggest cut in oil purchases, despite recently getting an exemption from the United States. Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 28% from January to April 2012.
However, Iran’s oil exports have also gone down due to their own oil embargo of the European Union. The EU’s own oil sanctions go into effect on July 1.
Speaking of Japan, Tokyo Electric, the operator of the nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, has been using oil to generate electricity, a lot more oil.
TEPCo reported that in March 2012 they used four times the amount of oil than in March 2011. They also used the most natural gas since August 2011, and August was a record for gas use by TEPCo; 2.079 million tons.
Regarding natural gas, the United States is so full of it, that there is no where left to store the stuff. Underground salt caverns, depleted oil fields and aquifers are being used but even they are rapidly filling.
The result is that drilling and pumping of the LNG will have to stop, natural gas prices are at ten year lows (we consumers like that). Maybe this will mean an end to fracking and man made earthquakes?
But that might be bad news for places like Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The town has seen an economic boom; their tax revenues have gone up more than 10% between 2006 and 2010, and 115 new business in and around Lycoming County have been created.
In Egypt, ever since the January 2011 Revolution their gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan keeps getting blown up. April 9, 2012, it got blown up again, for the 14th time since the Revolution.
In Libya, U.S. officials are investigating oil deals made with Italy’s Eni, and France’s Total. The companies are being investigated for their connections to Muammar Gaddafi.
Eni officials said certain payments made to Gaddafi might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practice Act. The U.S. is helping the new Libyan government investigate many oil companies, and could result in huge fines being levied in favor of the new government.
“UANI’s unprecedented success in pressuring multinational corporations to cease business in Iran has alerted the business community of the serious financial and reputational risks of doing business with the Iranian regime.”-UANI statement
April 5, 2012, South Korean car maker, Hyundai, succumbed to the attacks from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).
Hyundai will stop exporting cars to Iran, however such a move will only hurt Hyundai, by reducing overall sales. Iran has several car makers who will benefit by lack of foreign competition.
Hyundai is refusing to comment on the situation.
This is not about current U.S. sanctions against Iran. I’ve already written how U.S. Congress, and George Bush Jr created a law in 2000 that exempted U.S. corporations from existing, and future sanctions against Iran, and North Korea.
UANI was created in 2008, for the express purpose of going after corporations that do business with Iran.
UANI also proudly admits they are the ones behind much of the anti-Iran legislation coming out of Washington DC.
UANI is also the main “official” source of anti-Iran info being used by the U.S. media.
UANI also proudly admits they are the ones behind the nuclear weapons scare mongering rhetoric concerning Iran.
Want proof, just go to their website. You can find it yourself.
Want’s interesting is that UANI is claiming to be doing these things in the name of preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons, yet they are actually shutting down Western (European, Asian) competitors to U.S. corporations. How does that prevent another country from getting nuclear weapons?
French based car maker Peugeot Citroën, has shut down a factory after parts shipped from Iran were stopped.
Peugeot Citroën has manufacturing deals with Iran Khodro, a major car maker in Iran.
220 people were laid off at the Vesoul factory in northeastern France. This comes after a U.S. lobbyist group called United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), asked U.S. Congress to put pressure on the French car maker.
UANI also put pressure, should we say threatened, General Motors because GM holds 7% of Peugeot Citroën. Officials from the French car maker said it was GM that pressured them to stop selling knock down kits to Iran. A knock down kit is basically a unassembled car.
UANI has made completely unsubstantiated claims against Iran: “….it is unacceptable for GM to enter into a partnership with a company that so openly deals with a regime that is responsible for the deaths of U.S. and NATO servicemen and threatens U.S. and global security.”-Mark Wallace, UANI
How can Mark Wallace make such a claim? Iran has never been connected to any terrorist actions against the United States. Where’s the undeniable proof? What Mike Wallace is saying is the same old unproven ultra right wing neo conservative bull shit!
By the way, stopping Peugeot Citroën business with Iran will not hurt Iran’s economy. Iran Khodro is doing extremely well with its own car designs, especially in the Central Asian market. So the real question is; who is really being targeted by the U.S. sanctions?
French oil company Total, could lose $2.5 million USD per day due to its North Sea oil rig leak.
The Elgin ocean rig, near Scotland, began leaking natural gas eight days ago. It’s coming from a well that workers were trying to cap. The situation in the North Sea now, is similar to the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico blow out.
Workers were evacuated for fear of a huge explosion. There are now reports of “oily sheen” on the ocean’s surface.
According to the North African country of South Sudan, their neighbor Sudan is bombing their oil rich areas, in order to drive off investors from the United States.
Officials from Sudan deny that they are specifically targeting oil wells, but U.S. President Barack Obama asked both sides to avoid targeting oil resources. The U.S. supported the creation of the new country of South Sudan.
The Kurdish autonomous government in northern Iraq, have stopped oil shipments. Kurdish officials say the Iraqi government has not made any of the payments promised for past oil shipments.
Iraqi officials responded by stating that the Kurds have not sent all the oil that was promised. However, a payment of $560 million USD is being reviewed.
Iraqi officials also say they have reason to believe the Kurds are illegally selling oil to neighboring Middle Eastern countries. However, despite such claims of loss from Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraqi oil exports hit 2.13 million barrels per day in March.
The world’s biggest oil producer is no longer Exxon Mobil. PetroChina is now the number one producer of petroleum oil.
According to Bloomberg, PetroChina is now producing a little more than 2.4 million barrels per day of oil. Chinese officials say the petroleum company will actually increase its take over of other oil companies around the world, because China’s industries need the oil.
“Look, the very fact that a ‘no’ [a no on Keystone] could even be said underscores to our country that we must diversify our energy export markets. We cannot be, as a country, in a situation where our one and, in many cases, only energy partner could say no to our energy products. We just cannot be in that position.”-Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Canada has been selling its oil to the United States by at least half the going rate, but Canadian officials say that can’t continue, even if U.S. officials approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Canada will eventually jack up the price for U.S. customers.
“We have taken a significant price hit by virtue of the fact that we are a captive supplier and that just does not make sense in terms of the broader interests of the Canadian economy…”-Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
In a move that is hypocritical, the United States has exempted 10 European Union countries, and Japan, from U.S. imposed Iran oil sanctions.
It also brings up the question: What was the point?
I already showed how, under the Bush jr administration, U.S. corporations were exempted from future sanctions against Iran, back in 2000!
The countries now granted exemptions from the U.S. oil sanctions are Belgium, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Japan.
Again: What was the point of the U.S. imposed sanctions against Iran, if the U.S. is going to grant exemptions to other countries, and, a Republican created law in 2000 already exempts U.S. corporations from having to obey any sanctions anyway?
Very quietly, on March 16, 2012, Nobel prize winning U.S. President Barack Obama issued a new Executive Order: National Defense Resources Preparedness.
If you think the military industrial complex is big now, guess what!
The bulk of the Order focuses on creating a full blown Total War military industry. Obama stresses the need to “improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the domestic industrial base to support national defense requirements” and “to foster cooperation between the defense and commercial sectors for research and development and for acquisition of materials, services, components, and equipment to enhance industrial base efficiency and responsiveness.”
The Order establishes the officials who will lead the Defense Production Act Committee, and orders the Secretary of Commerce to co-operate with the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security!
It also orders six Departments to begin prioritizing and allocating resources respective to food, health care, transportation, resources for industries, and even water supply (assigned to the Department of Defense)!
“The Secretary of each agency delegated authority under subsection (a) of this section (resource departments) shall plan for and issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources and establish standards and procedures by which the authority shall be used to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.”
The Order even gets into the details of providing loans to companies involved with providing for National Defense!
It makes the Secretary of Defense the go to man for funding, as he is now acting Defense Production Act Fund Manager.
The Order places the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of the National Defense Executive Reserve (NDER), including the “…establishment, recruitment, training, monitoring, and activation of NDER units…”
The Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Defense, will “…collect and maintain data necessary to make a continuing appraisal of the Nation’s workforce…” and develop “…policies regulating the induction and deferment of persons for duty in the armed services…”
“Executive Order 12919 of June 3, 1994, and sections 401(3) (4) of Executive Order 12656 of November 18, 1988, are revoked.”
Executive Order 12919 deals with national defense industrial resource policies and programs. Executive Order 12656 deals with emergency preparedness responsibilities.
The major differences between this National Defense Resources Preparedness, and those made in the past, is the use of the term “non-emergencies”, several times in the order. Also, the desire to control food & water supplies as well as health care and transportation.
From Section 201: “…to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense…”
This is for real people! This is basically an order that puts the United States in a Total War stance. “Total war is the practice of war where nearly all the resources of a society are employed to defeat an opponent.”–Silvapages
According to the Joint Organization Data Initiative (JODI), Iranian oil sales have gone up since the United States started their sanctions games last year!
In January 2012, Iran exported 2.265 million barrels per day. The highest since December 2008!
Of course part of the increase is from customers stocking up now, ’cause they’re afraid the Iranian oil supply will end due to new sanctions and a possible war (again, no thanks to the United States, European Union and Israel).
Those same sanctions, and threats of war, have also increased Saudi Arabian oil sales to the United States. U.S. officials managed to get Saudi officials to change their minds about not increasing oil production, at a recent IEF meeting.
Canadian media reporting that Saudi oil exports to the U.S. have already increased by 25%.
Algeria and Ecuador have also increased oil production. Algeria by 18%, Ecuador by 41%!
All this comes at a time when oil industry leaders say there is plenty of oil in the system. It could be a sign of stockpiling before the Third World War gets going full throttle.
Iraq is preparing by planning oil shipment routes that will avoid the Strait of Hormuz. They plan to build new pipelines to Turkey: “Short and mid-term plans will be through boosting crude pumping and upgrading export capacity via Ceyhan port in Turkey. Also to increase the number of trucks that are shipping crude.”-Iraqi government statement
The planned Global March on Al Quds includes people from South East Asia: “The troubles we have in this world now is because nobody stands up for justice. Everybody is so selfish….Therefore we feel that although Palestine does not affect us directly, it is imperative for every single person who loves peace and justice to stand up…”-Nusrat Howard-Moore, Malaysia
Many people from India have joined the march as well: “We come to support the Palestine issue, as human beings, not Muslim, not Islamist.”-Suresh Khairnar, India
Thousands of demonstrators are hoping to surround Jerusalem on the 36th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day, which is March 30.