{"id":8125,"date":"2015-05-14T06:17:45","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T11:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=8125"},"modified":"2015-05-14T06:17:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T11:17:45","slug":"the-us-saudi-war-with-opec-to-prolong-oils-dying-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=8125","title":{"rendered":"The US-Saudi war with OPEC to prolong oil\u2019s dying empire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The US-Saudi war with OPEC to prolong oil\u2019s dying empire\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n

Whoever controls the price of oil can play god with the global economy – that\u2019s why the US and Saudi Arabia are leading the way to smash OPEC and re-create a new global oil cartel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cNo one can set the price of oil,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi earlier this week. \u201cIt\u2019s up to Allah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is an interesting comment given Saudi Arabia\u2019s insistence on boosting high levels of production since last year. The strategy has maintained a global supply glut, playing a key role in the dramatic lowering of oil prices.<\/p>\n

Although the Saudis have recently increased official selling prices in response to stronger demand, al-Naimi made clear that they have\u00a0no plans<\/a>\u00a0to curb production.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake – the global oil glut is not just a result of market-driven supply demand dynamics, but an intended consequence of an evolving US-Saudi strategy to use oil as a weapon.<\/p>\n

That is not to suggest that the US and Saudi Arabia are in complete agreement over the strategy, or even that it is being hatched and executed in total coordination. Rather, an uneasy convergence of mutual interests has given rise to a strategic accommodation between the two allies.<\/p>\n

The targets of the strategy include their chief geopolitical rivals, climate change activists and renewable energy advocates.<\/p>\n

Playing god with oil<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The idea of using oil to play god is hardly new, but for the Obama administration it dawned with the US shale gas boom.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2013, Obama\u2019s then national security adviser Tom Donilon,\u00a0explained<\/a>\u00a0in Foreign Affairs, that the surge in US domestic energy production \u201callows Washington to engage in international affairs from a position of strength\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

– See more at: http:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/columns\/us-saudi-war-opec-prolong-oil-s-dying-empire-222413845#sthash.JYZfA68W.dpuf<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US-Saudi war with OPEC to prolong oil\u2019s dying empire\u00a0 Whoever controls the price of oil can play god with the global economy – that\u2019s why the US and Saudi Arabia are leading the way to smash OPEC and re-create a new global oil cartel \u201cNo one can set the price of oil,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Saudi oil minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5],"tags":[588,4653,592,1775,595,596,701,723,827],"class_list":["post-8125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-geopolitics","tag-oil","tag-oil-oversupply","tag-oil-price","tag-oil-price-collapse","tag-oil-production","tag-oil-supply","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shale-oil","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8126,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8125\/revisions\/8126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}