Daily Archive

Oh Canada! Producer of so much oil and making strides to export it to other countries just had its first jump in gasoline prices.  One question to contemplate is that rather than exporting oil to other countries wouldn’t it be nice to stabilize the domestic market supply and give Canadian consumers a break at the pumps?  Wouldn’t a steady rate of return and a Canadian public that doesn’t hate your guts be a good thing?

“Sorry Canada-friends!”, says the Oil Industry there are bottom lines to fatten up – the door to fuck-right-off is on your left please use it at our convenience, plebs!

Oh, and the usual excuses about market instability.  I really enjoy paying for market jitters and financial speculation.

“McTeague blamed jitters and excessive financial speculation over instability in the Middle East for “distorting” fuel prices.

Meanwhile, he noted, actual supply for crude has never been better.

 I love the fresh pungent smell of oligarchy in the morning.

“Laura Lau, a senior vice-president portfolio manager with the Brompton Group specializing in natural resources, said the markups are a direct reflection of international headlines.  The risk premium for oil has soared, even though the unrest hasn’t stopped crude from flowing.

“We could see some relief, but it depends on what happens in Iraq,” Lau said. “If it escalates, we’ll probably see it go up. If it’s resolved or the intensity comes down, we could see oil and gasoline prices come down.”

She noted that no shortages have been reported so far, although oil companies in the region have begun to withdraw nonessential staff following the violent siege of northern Iraq’s Baiji refinery by Sunni militants.

“So could oil production be reduced? Yes,” Lau said. “But right now, it’s more the threat of it than the actual reality.“

This just in, lone Donkey in Iraq pisses on Pipeline – Corrosion could destroy Iraq Oil forever! Oil Barons in North America: Raise the prices, call it “market-forces” and let’s get to work acquiring that 5th yatcht, STAT!!!

Comments on the CBC article nail the BS surrounding the gas gouging:

“These price hikes are pure BS. Only 6% of the oil used in the North America comes from Iraq. The 2 biggest sources are 28% Canada and 16%Saudi Arabia. Then we have Mexico and Venezuela at 11% each with 27% coming from various sources. So to say the price of fuel is rising (in North America) because of a conflict in Iraq is a lie.”

Of course if it is a profitable lie for the right people then it isn’t really a lie then, is it?

[Source: CBC.CA]

Bonus Round!

Profitability above all!

Graph (1) above: as experience has shown, Americans love a good fairy tale. In the case of U.S. involvement in Iraq we have been fed a long series of substantially unrelated rationales from political ‘liberation’ (1990-1991) to WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) and democratization (2003 – 2006) and now on to ‘re-stabilization.’ Left unstated are economic interests like oil company profits, munitions sales and contracts for rebuilding what the U.S. has destroyed. Graph (1) illustrates the relation of oil prices to oil company profits. Wars against oil-rich nations raise the price of oil to the benefit of international oil companies. What do one million dead and four million displaced human beings matter when profits are to be ‘made?’ Source: Reuters.