Tag Archives: oil

Business/Economics, International

Control of Oil rights behind Scotland’s latest push for Independence

Scotland has oil, lots of it.  And the Scottish people say they’re tired of the English controlling it.  After all they were told they would benefit, but they haven’t.  Scottish rebels point to Norway as an example:  “Scotland and Norway discovered oil at the same time. Some years ago, Scotland was turned into an industrial desert and Norway has transformed its society and its economy, they have billions in the bank, whereas we have seen ours wasted on missiles and weapons of mass destruction and illegal wars.”-Kenny MacAskill, Scottish Justice Minister

The recent Scottish elections saw the Scottish National Party dominate.  The SNP ran on a promise to make Scotland independent: “We have been elected with two mandates: one is to pursue our claim for an independent Scotland in the right for a referendum. Equally, we have been elected as a government to make Scotland a better place and we seek to do that by driving our economy forward and making our country a fairer, greener, safer, wealthier and healthier.”-Kenny MacAskill

Business/Economics, Idaho, International

Canadian oil company equipment stuck in Idaho, Montana suing

Canadian Imperial Oil (a subsidiary Exxon Mobil Corp) has massive equipment, called modules, stuck in Lewiston, Idaho.  They need to get it to their Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta, Canada.

The problem is their size.  Idaho Transportation Department has yet to approve transportation of the equipment through Idaho, one of the problems is that the modules won’t fit under any overpasses in Idaho.  Oil company officials say they will have to cut them in half.

In Montana, there are lawsuits to stop the transportation through its territory. Montana officials say the size of the Imperial Oil equipment will require burial of overhead power lines, upgrading existing roads and building new turnouts (who’s gonna pay for that?).  Montana environmentalists say the company needs to do an environmental impact assessment.

Imperial Oil is complaining that their construction schedule is being compromised.  Maybe they should have worked this out before hand?

Imperial Oil does not have a good business track record, or a good safety track record.  Recently they’ve apologized for the release of a mile-long plume of sulfur dioxide, in Ontario, Canada.

International, U.S.

Gates calls war on Libya “Limited Kinetic Action”

May 17, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was recently asked, by CBS’s 60 Minutes, about the war against Libya.  He replied that the United States was not legally/technically at war with Libya (that would take a declaration of War by Congress).  Instead Gates says the U.S. is engaged in “limited kinetic action” against Libya.

Gates is not the first U.S. official to make such a reference to the war against Libya.

Business/Economics, International

As oil prices go down, Canadian oil production hit by disaster after disaster

“The wildfire situation in Alberta remains extreme.”-Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta

The wildfires in Alberta, Canada, are not only destroying homes, and even towns, but oil fields as well.  The fires are adding to already damaged oil production in Canada.

This year, most oil producers in Canada are dealing with clean ups of major oil spills (ignored by main stream media) and explosions of sand oil fields (also ignored by main stream media).  On top of that, and the fires in Alberta, some oil fields are under water because of flooding in Manitoba.

Oil producer Penn West says their oil production is down by 40,000 barrels per day, and that’s before the fires shut down their operation in Alberta.

The Rainbow pipeline (run by Plains All American Pipeline LP) in Alberta, is closed because of a massive oil spill earlier this year, but clean up of the spill is halted because of the wildfires.  How long will the wildfires go once they hit the oil?

Reuters reported that at least half a dozen Canadian pipelines developed leaks this year.  This is either a case of shoddy maintenance by Canadian companies, or sabotage.

The result of the explosions, pipeline spills, flooding and now fires, is causing several Canadian refiners to shut down.  Operators of the Pelican Lake plant say they will have to shut down if they don’t get oil soon.  The Marten Mountain plant is already shut down.

 

International, U.S.

MI-6 admits the war in Iraq was about Oil for the British Empire, everything else is just lies, lies, lies

“The overall plan would need to be like an onion, each layer concealing the one below.”-Richard Dearlove, former SIS (MI-6) chief

When it comes to the long history of Iraq and the British Empire it’s always been about the oil.

The United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI-6, aka SIS-4) has revealed documents that show that the British interest in the invasion of Iraq was all about controlling the oil.

The report appears in the U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail.  SIS officers and the Blair administration discussed ways to “new security in oil supplies” by invading Iraq.  The British Empire first took over Iraq after World War 1, for the purpose of surrounding Russia in what’s called the Great Game (which many think is still going on), and mainly to develop Iraq’s oil fields.  Invading Iraq in the 21st century gave the U.K. another chance at controlling that oil.

The SIS documents also show that Richard Dearlove, then boss of the intelligence service, was concerned about the legality of the invasion. He wanted the input of “Government law officers to provide assurances of legality (there has been a serious problem here).”

If you need more proof that the U.K. was in the Iraq invasion for the oil, just compare how many oil contracts went to U.S. companies, to how many went to British companies.

 

Business/Economics, International

President Ahmadinejad shuts down Iranian Oil Ministry, just follwing Iranian law

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the Oil Ministry, and says he will run Iran’s Oil Ministry himself: “The Iranian government and Parliament (Majlis) have consensus on the Oil Ministry merger…I am the caretaker for the Oil Ministry.”

Iran’s Five Year Development Plan requires the merger of several Ministries, to make the government more efficient.  Those mergers are Roads and Transportation with Housing and Urban Development, Energy with Oil, Industries and Mines with Commerce, and Welfare and Social Security with Labor and Social Affairs.

Despite the fact that the mergers are required by law, under the five year plan, Ahmadinejad is being criticized by those ministers who’ve lost their jobs.

Some Parliament members say Ahmadinejad was supposed to get their approval before merging the ministries.  Ahmadinejad says the Parliament did approve the Oil Ministry merger.

 

 

Opinion

Obama’s plan to increase oil drilling is not for bringing down gas prices, but to profit off high oil prices

Many U.S. media reports about President Obama’s push to increase U.S. oil production, blame it on the people’s demand for lower gas prices.

The problem with that argument is that world demand for oil products is so high that even if the U.S. can increase oil production, it will never be able to increase it enough to bring down prices.  That means the real reason for increasing U.S. oil production is to take advantage of high oil prices.

Is it possible that Obama is going back on his clean energy promise, because the United States is in so much debt, that he’s had to make a deal with the oil companies to give them access to oil rich areas, in exchange for bailing out the U.S. government?

 

International

Gaddafi Alive

An audio recording of Gaddafi was played on Libyan TV May 13.  He state that he was alive and called the West “cowards”.  For weeks Italian media speculated that he was wounded or dead.

“I thank all the presidents, ministers, ambassadors and all the people of the world who have expressed their deep concerns on my life after the attack.”-Muammar Gaddafi

 

International, Opinion, U.S.

Libyan rebel representatives at the White House asking for money

As if the United States and Europe aren’t doing enough for the Libyan Civil War.  Today, May 13, Libyan rebel reps are meeting with President Obama, to ask for more money.

Mahmoud Jebril, with the rebel’s National Transitional Council, is asking that Obama turn over the frozen assets of Gaddafi.  Jebril is a U.S. educated technocrat, who is helping to lead the rebel campaign against the Libyan government.

Jebril says that if the rebel Council doesn’t get more money soon, they will not be able to pay their mercenaries, I mean rebel troops.  The implication is that the so called rebel freedom fighters would walk away.