organization:organization of petroleum-exporting countries

  • Tom Stevenson reviews ‘AngloArabia’ by David Wearing · LRB 9 May 2019
    https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n09/tom-stevenson/what-are-we-there-for

    It is a cliché that the United States and Britain are obsessed with Middle East oil, but the reason for the obsession is often misdiagnosed. Anglo-American interest in the enormous hydrocarbon reserves of the Persian Gulf does not derive from a need to fuel Western consumption . [...] Anglo-American involvement in the Middle East has always been principally about the strategic advantage gained from controlling Persian Gulf hydrocarbons, not Western oil needs. [...]

    Other parts of the world – the US, Russia, Canada – have large deposits of crude oil, and current estimates suggest Venezuela has more proven reserves than Saudi Arabia. But Gulf oil lies close to the surface, where it is easy to get at by drilling; it is cheap to extract, and is unusually ‘light’ and ‘sweet’ (industry terms for high purity and richness). It is also located near the middle of the Eurasian landmass, yet outside the territory of any global power. Western Middle East policy, as explained by Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was to control the Gulf and stop any Soviet influence over ‘that vital energy resource upon which the economic and political stability both of Western Europe and of Japan depend’, or else the ‘geopolitical balance of power would be tipped’. In a piece for the Atlantic a few months after 9/11, Benjamin Schwarz and Christopher Layne explained that Washington ‘assumes responsibility for stabilising the region’ because China, Japan and Europe will be dependent on its resources for the foreseeable future: ‘America wants to discourage those powers from developing the means to protect that resource for themselves.’ Much of US power is built on the back of the most profitable protection #racket in modern history.

    [...]

    It is difficult to overstate the role of the Gulf in the way the world is currently run. In recent years, under both Obama and Trump, there has been talk of plans for a US withdrawal from the Middle East and a ‘#pivot’ to Asia. If there are indeed such plans, it would suggest that recent US administrations are ignorant of the way the system over which they preside works.

    The Arab Gulf states have proved well-suited to their status as US client states, in part because their populations are small and their subjugated working class comes from Egypt and South Asia. [...] There are occasional disagreements between Gulf rulers and their Western counterparts over oil prices, but they never become serious. [...] The extreme conservatism of the Gulf monarchies, in which there is in principle no consultation with the citizenry, means that the use of oil sales to prop up Western economies – rather than to finance, say, domestic development – is met with little objection. Wearing describes the modern relationship between Western governments and the Gulf monarchs as ‘asymmetric interdependence’, which makes clear that both get plenty from the bargain. Since the West installed the monarchs, and its behaviour is essentially extractive, I see no reason to avoid describing the continued Anglo-American domination of the Gulf as #colonial.

    Saudi Arabia and the other five members of the Gulf Co-operation Council are collectively the world’s largest buyer of military equipment by a big margin. [...]. The deals are highly profitable for Western arms companies (Middle East governments account for around half of all British arms sales), but the charge that Western governments are in thrall to the arms companies is based on a misconception. Arms sales are useful principally as a way of bonding the Gulf monarchies to the Anglo-American military. Proprietary systems – from fighter jets to tanks and surveillance equipment – ensure lasting dependence, because training, maintenance and spare parts can be supplied only by the source country. Western governments are at least as keen on these deals as the arms industry, and much keener than the Gulf states themselves. While speaking publicly of the importance of fiscal responsibility, the US, Britain and France have competed with each other to bribe Gulf officials into signing unnecessary arms deals.

    Control of the Gulf also yields less obvious benefits. [...] in 1974, the US Treasury secretary, William Simon, secretly travelled to Saudi Arabia to secure an agreement that remains to this day the foundation of the dollar’s global dominance. As David Spiro has documented in The Hidden Hand of American Hegemony (1999), the US made its guarantees of Saudi and Arab Gulf security conditional on the use of oil sales to shore up the #dollar. Under Simon’s deal, Saudi Arabia agreed to buy massive tranches of US Treasury bonds in secret off-market transactions. In addition, the US compelled Saudi Arabia and the other Opec countries to set oil prices in dollars, and for many years Gulf oil shipments could be paid for only in dollars. A de facto oil standard replaced gold, assuring the dollar’s value and pre-eminence.

    For the people of the region, the effects of a century of AngloArabia have been less satisfactory. Since the start of the war in Yemen in 2015 some 75,000 people have been killed, not counting those who have died of disease or starvation. In that time Britain has supplied arms worth nearly £5 billion to the Saudi coalition fighting the Yemeni Houthis. The British army has supplied and maintained aircraft throughout the campaign; British and American military personnel are stationed in the command rooms in Riyadh; British special forces have trained Saudi soldiers fighting inside Yemen; and Saudi pilots continue to be trained at RAF Valley on Anglesey. The US is even more deeply involved: the US air force has provided mid-air refuelling for Saudi and Emirati aircraft – at no cost, it emerged in November. Britain and the US have also funnelled weapons via the UAE to militias in Yemen. If the Western powers wished, they could stop the conflict overnight by ending their involvement. Instead the British government has committed to the Saudi position. As foreign secretary, Philip Hammond pledged that Britain would continue to ‘support the Saudis in every practical way short of engaging in combat’. This is not only complicity but direct participation in a war that is as much the West’s as it is Saudi Arabia’s.

    The Gulf monarchies are family dictatorships kept in power by external design, and it shows. [...] The main threat to Western interests is internal: a rising reminiscent of Iran’s in 1979. To forestall such an event, Britain equips and trains the Saudi police force, has military advisers permanently attached to the internal Saudi security forces, and operates a strategic communications programme for the Saudi National Guard (called Sangcom). [...]

    As Wearing argues, ‘Britain could choose to swap its support for Washington’s global hegemony for a more neutral and peaceful position.’ It would be more difficult for the US to extricate itself. Contrary to much of the commentary in Washington, the strategic importance of the Middle East is increasing, not decreasing. The US may now be exporting hydrocarbons again, thanks to state-subsidised shale, but this has no effect on the leverage it gains from control of the Gulf. And impending climate catastrophe shows no sign of weaning any nation from fossil fuels , least of all the developing East Asian states. US planners seem confused about their own intentions in the Middle East. In 2017, the National Intelligence Council described the sense of neglect felt by the Gulf monarchies when they heard talk of the phantasmagorical Asia pivot. The report’s authors were profoundly negative about the region’s future, predicting ‘large-scale violence, civil wars, authority vacuums and humanitarian crises persisting for many years’. The causes, in the authors’ view, were ‘entrenched elites’ and ‘low oil prices’. They didn’t mention that maintenance of both these things is US policy.

    #etats-unis #arabie_saoudite #pétrole #moyen_orient #contrôle

  • Twelve Empty Supertankers Reveal Truths About Today’s Oil Market - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-21/twelve-empty-supertankers-reveal-truths-about-today-s-oil-market

    They are slowly plowing their way across thousands of miles of ocean toward America’s Gulf of Mexico coastline. As they do, twelve empty supertankers are also revealing a few truths about today’s global oil market.

    In normal times, the vessels would be filled with heavy, high sulfur Middle East oil for delivery to refineries in places like Houston or New Orleans. Not now though. They are sailing cargo-less, a practice that vessel owners normally try to avoid because ships earn money by making deliveries.

    The 12 vessels are making voyages of as much as 21,000 miles direct from Asia, all the way around South Africa, holding nothing but seawater for stability because Middle East producers are restricting supplies. Still, America’s booming volumes of light crude must still be exported, and there aren’t enough supertankers in the Atlantic Ocean for the job. So they’re coming empty.

    What’s driving this is a U.S. oil market that’s looking relatively bearish with domestic production estimates trending higher, and persistent crude oil builds we have seen for the last few weeks,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam. “At the same time, OPEC cuts are supporting international grades like Brent, creating an export incentive.

    The U.S. both exports and imports large amounts of crude because the variety it pumps — especially newer supplies from shale formations — is very different from the type that’s found in the Middle East. OPEC members are likely cutting heavier grades while American exports are predominantly lighter, Patterson said.

    • Trois jours plus tard, Bloomberg remet une couche…

      des supertankers traversent l’Atlantique chargés d’eau de mer (sur ballast, quoi…)

      Rise of Shale Oil and OPEC Cuts Leave Supertankers Empty - Bloomberg
      https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-02-24/rise-of-shale-oil-and-opec-cuts-leave-supertankers-empty

      Supertankers hauling seawater across the Atlantic? That’s just one of the odder results of the U.S. shale boom.

      Crude oil has always flowed backwards and forwards across the world’s oceans. A typical voyage by one of the global fleet of around 750 of the giant ships currently in service might see it haul Middle Eastern exports across the Atlantic to a refinery on the U.S. Gulf coast, then pick up a cargo from Venezuela for delivery to China or India, before returning to the Persian Gulf.

      Vessels only earn money when they’re full, so being able to haul cargoes in both directions across the seas makes a great deal of sense for ship owners. But soaring U.S. production, OPEC output cuts and sanctions on Iran and Venezuela are turning the global crude oil trade on its head.
      […]
      Add to this a pickup in the flow of oil out of the Caribbean – Venezuela is shipping more of its crude east now that U.S. sanctions prevent it from targeting its traditional buyers on the Gulf coast.

  • Le projet de loi anti-Opep refait surface au Congrès américain
    https://www.latribune.fr/economie/international/le-projet-de-loi-anti-opep-refait-surface-au-congres-americain-807056.html

    Aux États-Unis, des parlementaires ont récemment remis sur la table un projet de loi visant à empêcher l’Organisation des pays exportateurs de pétrole (Opep) d’influencer les cours de l’or noir mais risquant aussi de provoquer de forts remous géopolitiques et financiers.

    Le projet de loi baptisé "No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2019" ou #NOPEC a été déposé la semaine dernière à la fois devant la Chambre des représentants et devant le Sénat américain. Cette loi, si elle était adoptée, permettrait aux autorités américaines de poursuivre tout groupe de pays s’accordant pour influencer les prix du pétrole en ajustant leur production. L’idée est d’abaisser in fine le prix de l’essence à la pompe. Pour l’heure, aucune date n’a été fixée pour son examen en séance plénière.

    L’#Opep, et son chef de file l’#Arabie_saoudite, sont directement visés. Le cartel a notamment décidé fin 2016, en association avec plusieurs pays partenaires dont la Russie, de s’imposer des quotas pour tenter de redresser les cours de l’or noir.

    Proposé pour la première fois en 2000, le projet de loi NOPEC réapparaît depuis par intermittence au Congrès américain malgré l’opposition de la Chambre américaine de commerce et de la fédération du secteur pétrolier API. Il n’a toutefois jamais été adopté. Les présidents républicain George W. Bush et démocrate Barack Obama avaient toujours averti qu’ils y mettraient leur veto.

    Le projet de loi apporte à l’administration américaine « un moyen de pression important si les prix devaient grimper », estimaient récemment dans une note les analystes de Barclays.

    Il pourrait aussi fournir « des options législatives pouvant être considérées comme des sanctions au regard du meurtre (du journaliste saoudien Jamal) Khashoggi, des tensions entre la Russie et l’Ukraine et des arrangements que l’Opep et ses partenaires pourraient envisager le mois prochain à Bakou », relevaient-ils.
    Le cartel et ses partenaires doivent discuter en Azerbaïdjan d’éventuels ajustements à l’accord les liant. Donald Trump appelle régulièrement l’Opep, parfois vertement, à ouvrir plus grand les vannes.

    Si le texte devait être adopté, le cartel - Arabie saoudite en tête -, « n’aurait alors plus aucun intérêt à se réserver une marge de manœuvre en cas de troubles », souligne James Williams de WTRG Economics.

    L’Opep maintient en effet depuis plusieurs décennies de quoi augmenter rapidement sa production pour pouvoir maintenir l’offre d’or noir sur le marché mondial, et Ryad est plusieurs fois monté au créneau pour éviter une flambée des prix, au moment des guerres en Irak ou des combats en Libye par exemple. Mais c’est coûteux. Or sans ce coussin de sécurité, « les prix fluctueront au moindre pépin », affirme M. Williams.

    « Toute loi NOPEC soulève le problème des relations entre les Etats-unis et l’Arabie saoudite », rappelle Harry Tchilinguirian de BNP Paribas. Certes les Etats-Unis, grâce à l’essor du pétrole de schiste, sont désormais moins dépendants des importations de pétrole. Mais Ryad reste « la pierre angulaire de la politique étrangère de Donald Trump au Moyen-Orient, en particulier pour tout ce qui concerne l’Iran_ », ajoute-t-il. Et le royaume est un important acheteur d’armes américaines.

    Par ailleurs, « si les prix du pétrole descendaient trop, les revenus des pays du Moyen-Orient chuteraient d’autant et leur population pourrait de nouveau manifester son mécontentement comme lors du Printemps arabe », remarque M. Williams.
    Pour tous ces risques économiques et géopolitiques, l’administration américaine n’aurait pas intérêt, selon lui, à promulguer le texte. Mais, ajoute-t-il, « avec ce président, on n’est jamais certain de rien ».

  • Former #Venezuela Supreme Court judge flees to U.S., denounces Maduro | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKCN1P00OU


    FILE PHOTO : Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro pauses as he speaks during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela December 12, 2018.
    REUTERS/Marco Bello

    Former Venezuelan Supreme Court Justice Christian Zerpa has fled to the United States to protest President Nicolas Maduro’s second term that will begin with his inauguration this week, the onetime Maduro backer told a Miami broadcaster on Sunday.

    The latest defection from the crisis-stricken OPEC nation’s government comes amid growing international pressure on Maduro over his new term, which resulted from a broadly boycotted 2018 vote dismissed by countries around the world as a sham.

    I’ve decided to leave Venezuela to disavow the government of Nicolas Maduro,” Zerpa said in an interview with EVTV, which is broadcast over cable and the internet.

    I believe (Maduro) does not deserve a second chance because the election he supposedly won was not free and competitive.

    The Supreme Court confirmed in a statement that he had fled, referring to him as a former magistrate and adding it opened an investigation of him in November over accusations of sexual harassment by women in his office. The court’s leadership recommended that he be dismissed over the allegations, it said, without providing details.

    Zerpa was for years a crucial ally of Maduro on the Supreme Court, which has backed the ruling Socialist Party in every major legal dispute since Maduro’s 2013 election.

    He wrote a 2016 ruling that provided the legal justification for Maduro’s government to strip congress of most of its powers after the Socialist Party lost control of the body to the opposition in a landslide election.

    Zerpa in the interview described the Supreme Court as “an appendage of the executive branch,” and said that justices were at times summoned to the presidential palace to receive instructions on how to rule on certain sensitive cases.

    The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Zerpa said he did not criticize Maduro’s May 2018 election to make sure he could pave the way for a safe exit from the country in the company of his family.

  • Is Saudi Arabia repaying Trump for Khashoggi by attacking Linda Sarsour?

    A Saudi-owned website considered close to the royal family claimed that Sarsour, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are agents of Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood who declared a ’jihad’ on Trump

    Allison Kaplan Sommer
    Dec 10, 2018

    https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-how-saudi-arabia-is-repaying-trump-for-his-support-on-khashoggi-1.

    There is nothing earth-shattering about seeing Women’s March leader and Arab-American activist Linda Sarsour criticized as a dangerous Islamist by the conservative right and pro-Israel advocates in the United States. But the latest attack on the activist comes from a new and somewhat surprising source: Saudi Arabia.
    Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned, pan-Arab news channel closely linked to the country’s royal family and widely viewed as reflecting Saudi foreign policy, published an article Sunday strongly suggesting that Sarsour and two incoming Muslim congresswomen are puppets planted by the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar to undermine the Trump administration.
    The feature, which profiles Sarsour, seems to cast her as the latest proxy figure in the kingdom’s bitter dispute with Qatar, and its bid to strengthen ties and curry favor with the White House.
    It also focused on two Democratic politicians whom Sarsour actively campaigned for in the 2018 midterms: Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, who are set to be the first-ever Muslim congresswomen when the House reconvenes in January.

    The Al Arabiya story on Linda Sarsour’s links to the Muslim Brotherhood, December 9, 2018.Screengrab
    Headlined “Details of calls to attack Trump by US ‘Muslim Sisters’ allied to Brotherhood,” the article is light on actual details but heavy on insinuation.
    Activists like Sarsour, and politicians like Tlaib and Omar, the Saudi publication wrote, are “mujahideen” (a term used to describe those involved in jihad) – fighting against “tyrants and opponents of Trump’s foreign policies.”

    The story says the policies they are fighting include “the siege of Iran, the fight against political Islam groups, and [Trump’s] choice of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a strategic ally.”
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    Tlaib and Omar, Al Arabiya asserts, are agents designed to “restore” control of political Islamist movements on the U.S. government by attacking Trump. The article says this effort is being directed by Sarsour – who, it writes, is purportedly funded and controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood - a claim it fails to provide any clear basis for.
    Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, Washington, says it should come as little surprise to those familiar with the region that “a state-owned Arabic news outlet would publish conspiracy theories about people whose views don’t accord with those of the government that funds it.”
    Al Arabiya, based in Dubai, but Saudi-owned, was founded in 2002 as a counter to Qatar’s popular Al Jazeera TV station – which frequently runs material sharply critical of the Saudis – as well as other Arabic media outlets critical of Saudi influence and supportive of political Islam.
    The article comes as rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar has heated up in recent times, with Qatar’s emir skipping this weekend’s Gulf Cooperation Council summit hosted by Saudi Arabia, which has led a diplomatic war on its neighbor for the past 18 months.
    Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and non-GCC member Egypt cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar in June 2017, charging that the country supports terrorism. Qatar denies the charges and says the Saudi boycott aims to curtail its sovereignty. Last week, the Gulf nation announced it was withdrawing from the OPEC oil cartel.
    Islamists vs Islamists
    “Democrats’ battle against the Republican control of the U.S. Congress led to an alliance with political Islamist movements in order to restore their control on government, pushing Muslim candidates and women activists of immigrant minorities onto the electoral scene,” the report states.
    The “common ground” between Omar and Tlaib, the article adds, is to battle Trump’s foreign policy “starting from the sanctions on Iran to the isolation of the Muslim Brotherhood and all movements of political Islam. Those sponsoring and supporting the two Muslim women to reach the U.S. Congress adopted a tactic to infiltrate through their immigrant and black minority communities in general, and women’s groups in particular.
    The article ties Sarsour to Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood through multiple associations with the Arab American Association of New York, which “was created by Palestinian Ahmed Jaber, a member of the Qatar International Foundation responsible for funding the association,” and also her attendance at an annual meeting of the International Network of Muslim Brotherhood in North America and Canada in 2016.
    The article compares Sarsour’s rhetoric to that “used by Muslim Brotherhood teachings and in the views of Sayyid Qutb, a scholar and co-founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, as well as from Abul A’la Maududi’s books ‘Islam and Ignorance’ and ‘Fundamentals of Islam.’
    “From all that is mentioned, we can touch the influence of Muslim Brotherhood in shaping the thoughts of American activist Linda Sarsour and consequently her declaring her ‘jihad’ against U.S. President Donald Trump, in addition to her call for the application of ‘Sharia,’ the rule of Islam in the United States of America,” the piece asserts.
    No one knows for sure whether Al Arabiya received direct orders from the Saudi government to attack Sarsour, Tlaib, Omar and other politically active Muslim women on the American left.
    Those familiar with Middle East media say conspiracy-minded attacks against figures in American politics aren’t particularly unusual in Arabic,
    but what is unique about this article is the fact it appeared in English on the network’s website.
    It seems to be a highly creative attempt to somehow repay the Trump White House as it deals with the fallout from the Jamal Khashoggi assassination. As Trump continues to take heat for staying close to the Saudis, they, in turn, are demonstrating their loyalty with their willingness to vilify people who were President Barack Obama’s supporters and are now Trump’s political enemies – even if they wear a hijab.

    Allison Kaplan Sommer
    Haaretz Correspondent

  • OPEC’s Worst Nightmare: Permian Is About to Pump a Lot More - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-21/opec-s-worst-nightmare-the-permian-is-about-to-pump-a-lot-more

    An infestation of dots, thousands of them, represent oil wells in the Permian basin of West Texas and a slice of New Mexico. In less than a decade, U.S. companies have drilled 114,000. Many of them would turn a profit even with crude prices as low as $30 a barrel.

    OPEC’s bad dream only deepens next year, when Permian producers expect to iron out distribution snags that will add three pipelines and as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day.

    #énergie #pétrole

  • #Transport_maritime : une #mondialisation conteneurisée qui rime encore avec #pollution

    La pollution des océans et de notre air est aussi interrogée par le développement du trafic maritime et de géants des mers. Cette semaine, la France a inauguré un #porte-conteneur de 400 mètres de long, alors que le secteur a tardé jusqu’au printemps dernier pour signer un accord en faveur du climat.


    https://www.franceculture.fr/ecologie-et-environnement/transport-maritime-une-mondialisation-conteneurisee-qui-rime-encore-av
    #containeurs #containers

    ping @simplicissimus @reka

    • L’OMI avait fixé des limites pour le taux de soufre des carburants en 2008 avec entrée en vigueur en 2020. Il semble que les armateurs n’ont pas vraiment eu le temps de s’y adapter…

      Shipping’s 2020 Low Sulphur Fuel Rules Explained – gCaptain
      https://gcaptain.com/shippings-2020-low-sulphur-fuel-rules-explained
      article de mai 2018

      New rules coming into force from 2020 to curb pollution produced by the world’s ships are worrying everyone from OPEC oil producers to bunker fuel sellers and shipping companies.

      The regulations will slash emissions of sulphur, which is blamed for causing respiratory diseases and is a component of acid rain that damages vegetation and wildlife.

      But the energy and shipping industries are ill-prepared, say analysts, with refiners likely to struggle to meet higher demand for cleaner fuel and few ships fitted with equipment to reduce sulphur emissions.

      This raises the risk of a chaotic shift when the new rules are implemented, alongside more volatility in the oil market.

      The reality is that the industry has already passed the date beyond the smooth transition,” Neil Atkinson, head of the oil industry and market division at the International Energy Agency (IEA), said in April.

      Toujours pour les produits sulfurés, l’équipement en scrubbers (absorbeurs-épurateurs) autre exigence de l’OMI progresse tout doucement ; le marché commencerait à se réveiller.

      IMO 2020 : How Many Ships Have Scrubbers ? - Ship & Bunker
      https://shipandbunker.com/news/world/811942-imo-2020-how-many-ships-have-scrubbers


      Image Credit : EGCSA

      After months of downbeat assessment for the scrubber market, in recent weeks orders are reported to have surged and the corresponding positive headlines have been difficult to miss.

      So how many vessels actually have scrubbers? According to a recent survey of its membership by the Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems Association (EGCSA), as of May 31, 2018 there were 983 vessels with scrubber systems installed or on order, translating into 1,561 individual scrubber towers.

      This is notably higher than the 817 vessels reported by DNV GL last month, but still a far cry from the 3,800 predicted in official estimates by IMO’s fuel availability study.

      Enfin, à côté, on annonce ponctuellement l’arrivée de navires propulsés au GNL, censé être moins polluant.

      http://www.golng.eu/files/Main/20180417/2.%20Ole%20Vidar%20Nilsen%20-%20DNV%20GL.pdf

      There are currently [Updated 1 April 2018] 247 confirmed LNG fuelled ships, and 110 additional LNG ready ships
      […]
      (Scrubber retrofit is the “main competitor” to LNG)

  • Why the IPO of Saudi Arabia’s crown jewel has stalled
    https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/23/investing/saudi-aramco-ipo-oil/index.html

    Maybe the biggest issue is that an IPO could have forced the kingdom to divulge closely guarded state secrets. Going public requires transparency.

    #Aramco would likely be forced to lift the veil of secrecy around private information about the size of the kingdom’s oil reserves. Keeping those numbers confidential has added to Saudi Arabia’s clout inside OPEC.

    “Anybody with a smartphone would have access to detailed reserve figures that are now state secrets,” said Jim Krane, an energy analyst at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

    The Aramco problems could raise doubt about the kingdom’s commitment to the wise strategy of diversifying away from fossil fuels by selling a stake in Aramco.

    The rationale behind the diversification “remains sound,” Krane said, but the method “turned out to be flawed.”

    The stalled IPO has forced Saudi Arabia’s to look elsewhere for resources.

    The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund is now seeking $12 billion in loans from international banks, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

    #arabie_saoudite

  • Iran’s Tanker Fleet Gives Oil-Export Lifeline as Sanctions Loom - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-24/iran-s-tanker-fleet-gives-oil-export-lifeline-as-sanctions-loom


    An Iranian tanker docking at Kharg Island
    Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images

    Iran’s own fleet of tankers may provide a lifeline for its crude and condensate exports that’ll be slashed as U.S. sanctions against the Persian Gulf nation take hold.

    As Iran’s customers give in to mounting U.S. pressure, shipments from the OPEC member may drop to under 1 million barrels a day by mid-2019, down from a daily 2.5 million this year, according to industry consultant FGE. Still, the Middle East nation’s cargoes to China in the past few weeks show how changing vessel ownership and contract terms may help it sustain flows to buyers.

  • China Shipowners Stop Hauling Iranian Oil as U.S. Sanctions Near - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-21/china-shipowners-stop-hauling-iranian-oil-as-u-s-sanctions-near

    • Only Iranian ships are carrying crude to China since July
    • OPEC producer has sold cargoes on its tankers to India as well

    China’s shipowners are shunning Iran’s oil, while the OPEC producer is using its own tankers to supply top customers as impending U.S. sanctions threaten to disrupt global crude trade.

    All 17 ships used to carry oil from the Islamic Republic to China in July and August are owned by the state-run National Iranian Tanker Co., according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. By contrast, almost half the vessels that made the journey in the prior three months were owned by companies in the North Asian nation, the data show.

  • New U.S.-Russia-Saudi oil alliance could also have implications for Israel and Iran

    A reported deal between Putin and the Saudi crown prince means they will have members of OPEC over a barrel when they meet in Vienna this weekend – but Jerusalem will be an interested spectator as well

    Anshel PfefferSendSend me email alerts
    Jun 20, 2018

    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-u-s-russia-saudi-oil-alliance-could-affect-israel-iran-too-1.61968

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman didn’t look like someone whose national team was losing 5-0 to Russia last Thursday. The broad smiles as he sat beside Russian President Vladimir Putin in the VIP box at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium indicated the opening match of the World Cup was just an excuse for their meeting.
    According to briefings by Russian officials after the crown prince had left Moscow, he and Putin had agreed on a joint policy worth more than any sports trophy.
    The two governments – also two of the world’s major energy producers – had reportedly agreed to “institutionalize” the relationship between Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Does this include all the OPEC members who are meeting in Vienna on Friday? Almost certainly not.
    OPEC exists in theory to ensure its members’ market share of the global energy market and to try and boost oil prices, ensuring their major source of income remains lucrative. But it depends on consensus and coordination between the members. And geopolitics can intrude – in this case, the deepening enmity between two of the major oil producers: the Saudis and Iran.
    In 2016, following a prolonged dip in oil prices (which saw the price of a barrel of crude drop to below $30), OPEC’s 14 members – along with OPEC Plus, a second group of associated nations, including Russia – agreed to cut back production. Along with the rise in global financial activity, this has gradually pushed oil prices back to over $70 a barrel.
    Now, though, some nations – led by the Saudis and Russia – are calling for an increase in production. They are losing market share to U.S. shale oil producers and argue that, since demand is currently high, putting more oil on the market will not dramatically affect prices. They calculate that any dip in prices will be offset by the increase in production.
    But not all OPEC members are capable of boosting production.
    Iran, about to come under stiff new sanctions from the Trump administration, is already losing orders worth hundreds of thousands of barrels. In Venezuela, production is already plummeting due to political turmoil and the economic meltdown under the Maduro government, which also faces U.S. sanctions. For both countries, lower oil prices will only compound their financial woes.

  • Neal Stephenson : Innovation Starvation | WIRED
    https://www.wired.com/2011/10/stephenson-innovation-starvation

    par Neil Stephenson

    Still, I worry that our inability to match the achievements of the 1960s space program might be symptomatic of a general failure of our society to get big things done. My parents and grandparents witnessed the creation of the airplane, the automobile, nuclear energy, and the computer to name only a few. Scientists and engineers who came of age during the first half of the 20th century could look forward to building things that would solve age-old problems, transform the landscape, build the economy, and provide jobs for the burgeoning middle class that was the basis for our stable democracy.

    The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 crystallized my feeling that we have lost our ability to get important things done. The OPEC oil shock was in 1973 — almost 40 years ago. It was obvious then that it was crazy for the United States to let itself be held economic hostage to the kinds of countries where oil was being produced. It led to Jimmy Carter’s proposal for the development of an enormous synthetic fuels industry on American soil. Whatever one might think of the merits of the Carter presidency or of this particular proposal, it was, at least, a serious effort to come to grips with the problem.

    The audience at Future Tense was more confident than I that science fiction [SF] had relevance — even utility — in addressing the problem.

    I heard two theories as to why:

    The Inspiration Theory. SF inspires people to choose science and engineering as careers. This much is undoubtedly true, and somewhat obvious.
    The Hieroglyph Theory. Good SF supplies a plausible, fully thought-out picture of an alternate reality in which some sort of compelling innovation has taken place. A good SF universe has a coherence and internal logic that makes sense to scientists and engineers. Examples include Isaac Asimov’s robots, Robert Heinlein’s rocket ships, and William Gibson’s cyberspace. As Jim Karkanias of Microsoft Research puts it, such icons serve as hieroglyphs — simple, recognizable symbols on whose significance everyone agrees.

    Today’s belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-killer of our age. In this environment, the best an audacious manager can do is to develop small improvements to existing systems — climbing the hill, as it were, toward a local maximum, trimming fat, eking out the occasional tiny innovation — like city planners painting bicycle lanes on the streets as a gesture toward solving our energy problems. Any strategy that involves crossing a valley — accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance — will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done.

    #Science_fiction #Innovation #Neil_Stephenson

  • What’s at Stake for Oil as Trump Appoints Another Iran Hawk? - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-23/what-s-at-stake-for-oil-as-trump-appoints-another-iran-hawk

    Iran is trying to attract more than $100 billion from international oil companies to boost crude and condensate output by about 25 percent to more than 5 million barrels a day. Without new investment from international companies production will stagnate.

    Trump’s disdain for the nuclear deal has already deterred investors from the country, the third-biggest producer in OPEC. Of the Western energy majors, only France’s Total SA has returned, and its gas venture is proceeding slowly. Iranian officials are already complaining that western oil companies are too cautious to return to the country and there are signs that Russian companies are stepping in to fill the vacuum.

    Total has the biggest financial stake of any international energy major, having pledged to invest $1 billion in the first phase of an offshore natural gas project. Overall investment in the project could reach $5 billion, and while the company is determined to press ahead, Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne has promised to review the legal consequences of any new U.S. restrictions.
    […]
    Three years ago, in a New York Times op-ed titled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran,” Bolton argued that the only way to prevent Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons was a military strike. He cited Israel’s preemptive strike in 1981 on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor as an example of effective action.

    Bolton downplayed the significance of his past public statements in an interview with Fox News shortly after the appointment was announced, saying he would defer to the president’s judgment.

    I’ve never been shy about what my views are,” Bolton said. But, he added, that “now is behind me, at least effective April 9, and the important thing is what the president says and what advice I give him.

    Bolton’s appointment has lots of implications beyond just Iran, Ian Bremmer, president of consultant Eurasia Group, said on Twitter. It also makes Trump’s scheduled talks with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un riskier, he said.

    Thursday was “probably the worst/biggest single day for geopolitical risk since I started Eurasia Group in 1998,” Bremmer said on Twitter.

  • ANALYSIS-How soaring US oil exports to China are transforming the global oil game
    https://af.reuters.com/article/africaTech/idAFL8N1PV014

    The transformation is reflected in figures released in recent days that shows the U.S. now produces more oil than top exporter Saudi Arabia and means the Americans are likely to take over the No.1 producer spot from Russia by the end of the year. C-OUT-T-EIA

    The growth has surprised even the official U.S. Energy Information Administration, which this week raised its 2018 crude output forecast to 10.59 million bpd, up by 300,000 bpd from their last forecast just a week before.
    […]
    The U.S. supplies will help reduce China’s huge trade surplus with the U.S. and may help to counter allegations from U.S. President Donald Trump that Beijing is trading unfairly.
    […]
    The flood of U.S. oil may even change the way crude is priced.

    Most OPEC producers sell crude under long-term contracts which are priced monthly, sometimes retro-actively. U.S. producers, by contrast, export on the basis of freight costs and price spreads between U.S. and other kinds of crude oil.

    This has led to a surge in traded volumes of U.S. crude futures, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), leaving volumes of other futures like Brent or Dubai far behind.

    Buyers, like sellers of U.S. oil, started hedging WTI,” said John Driscoll, director of Singapore-based consultancy JTD Energy Services.

    Despite all these challenges to the traditional oil order, established producers are putting on a brave face.

    We have no concern whatsoever about rising U.S. exports. Our reliability as a supplier is second to none, and we have the highest customer base with long-term sales agreements,” said Amin Nasser, president and chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil behemoth.

  • OPEC Chief Says Floating Storage Is Shrinking - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-09/opec-chief-says-floating-storage-shrinking-as-market-rebalances

    Crude oil in floating storage is declining, showing that the market is rebalancing, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said.

    Crude in tankers has fallen by an estimated 40 million barrels this year, according to a transcript of a speech delivered by Barkindo on Monday. The drop has been helped by the return of backwardation — when near-term prices are higher than those in later months, indicating tighter supply.

    This trend will obviously make it unprofitable to continue to store crude,” Barkindo said.

  • OPEC’s LNG Giant Keeps Exporting Gas and Oil as Saudis Cut Ties - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-05/saudi-led-isolation-of-lng-giant-doesn-t-stop-gas-or-oil-exports

    Qatar, the world’s biggest seller of liquefied natural gas, can still access shipping routes to deliver oil and gas to buyers after Saudi Arabia and other neighboring states barred the emirate from exporting through their territorial waters.

    State producer Qatargas told Japan’s Jera Co. that it would keep supplying LNG as normal in spite of the Saudi-led severing of diplomatic ties with Qatar, Jera spokesman Atsuo Sawaki said by phone. Jera is Japan’s biggest buyer of Qatari LNG under long-term contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

    The escalation of tensions in the energy-rich Persian Gulf probably won’t disrupt LNG supplies to Qatar’s main customers in Asia, according to Robin Mills, head of Dubai-based consultant Qamar Energy. “In principle Qatar should still be able to export via its own waters, Iran and Oman,” Mills said.
    […]
    Aside from sending LNG and oil by ship, Qatar exports natural gas through a pipeline operated by Dolphin Energy, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co., Total SA and Occidental Petroleum Corp. The link supplies gas to the U.A.E. and Oman and can send 3.2 billion cubic feet per day, though it only uses about two-thirds of that capacity.

    Gas continues to flow normally through the Dolphin pipeline to the U.A.E. and Oman, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. There is no sign that supplies will be cut, they said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

    A potential shutdown of the pipeline would cause a “severe problem” in the U.A.E. as demand for electricity peaks in the summer, Mills said. But he played down the likelihood that either country would halt supplies due to the hardship this would cause the U.A.E. and the damage it would inflict on Qatar’s reputation as a reliable energy provider.

    #nuit_torride

  • Saudi, UAE ports bar ships flying Qatari flag after ties cut | Reuters
    http://in.reuters.com/article/gulf-qatar-shipping-idINKBN18W21S

    Ports in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ barred ships flying Qatari flags after the two countries broke off diplomatic ties with Doha, in a move that raised fears of disruption to oil and gas shipments from the Gulf OPEC member.

    The Saudi Ports Authority has notified shipping agents not to accept vessels flying Qatari flags or ships owned by Qatari companies or individuals, it said on its Twitter account on Monday, adding that Qatari goods would not be allowed to be unloaded in Saudi ports.

    Vessels flying the flag of Qatar or vessels destined to or arriving from Qatar ports are not allowed to call on the Port of Fujairah or Fujairah Offshore Anchorage regardless of the nature of their call until further notice,” authorities in Fujairah, an emirate in the UAE and regional bunkering hub, said in a notice seen by Reuters.

    #nuit_torride

    On voit mal comment les troupes qataries pourraient continuer à combattre au Yémen au côté de leurs ex-alliés. Incidents à venir ?

    • Pour mémoire, il y a tout juste un an

      L’italien Fincantieri souffle à DCNS un mégacontrat au Qatar
      https://www.lesechos.fr/16/06/2016/lesechos.fr/0211037913804_l-italien-fincantieri-souffle-a-dcns-un-megacontrat-au-qatar.

      Rude déception pour DCNS qui perd la partie contre son rival italien Fincantieri au Qatar. Les chantiers navals italiens livreront quatre corvettes, deux patrouilleurs et un vaisseau amphibie pour une valeur de 4 milliards d’euros à l’émirat. Le forcing mené par le ministre de la Défense, Jean-Yves Le Drian, lors du Salon naval Dimdex qui se tenait à Doha fin mars a été vain. De même qu’un dernier effort consenti récemment par DCNS dans une nouvelle offre. Le Qatar et le groupe Fincantieri ont signé, jeudi 16 juin à Rome, un contrat préliminaire.

      Baptisé « Protector », le contrat totalise près de 5 milliards d’euros en incluant l’armement. Le groupe européen MBDA devrait fournir pour près de 1 milliard d’euros de missiles, notamment des Aster 30. Selex-ES (groupe Leonardo) livrera les radars antiaériens, une part qui pèse environ 800 millions d’euros. Les navires seront construits en Ligurie dans les chantiers de Riva Trigoso et Muggiano à partir de 2018, assurant six années de travail.

      L’Italie va construire la nouvelle flotte du Qatar | Mer et Marine
      https://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/litalie-va-construire-la-nouvelle-flotte-du-qatar

      Des corvettes lourdement armées
      Le Qatar a donc opté pour quatre corvettes, dont on sait seulement qu’elles mesureront plus de 100 mètres. Aucune image ou détail n’a été communiqué. Par conséquent, on ne sait pas s’il s’agit d’une version musclée de la corvette Abu Dhabi (88 mètres, 1600 tonnes), livrée en janvier 2013 par Fincantieri aux Emirats Arabes Unis et qui a été conçue sur la base des OPV italiens du type Cigala Fulgosi. Ou bien un nouveau design, peut être inspiré des sept futurs PPA (Pattugliatore Polivalente d’Altura) de 132 mètres et 4500 tonnes commandés par la marine italienne. Il s’agira dans tous les cas d’une véritable plateforme de combat, compacte mais fortement armée, avec en particulier des systèmes fournis par MBDA.

  • The data dilemma : Big differences in Saudi crude export numbers : Russell | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/column-russell-crude-saudi-idUSL4N1IO2FA

    One of the difficulties in constructing a narrative for the crude oil market and the output cuts promised by major exporters is what set of numbers to believe.

    It’s possible to argue that Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest exporter and the force behind the cuts, is either doing more than its share, or less, depending on the numbers used.

    The export data published by the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) on May 18 would support the view that the Saudis have more than met their commitment to the November deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied producers to cut output by a combined 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd).

    The JODI numbers show the Saudis exported 7.23 million bpd in March, slightly up from February’s 6.96 million bpd, and down from January’s 7.71 million bpd.
    […]
    Vessel-tracking and port data compiled by Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodity Forecasts, however, tells a different story. This data shows Saudi exports of crude averaged 7.67 million bpd in the first quarter, down only 180,000 bpd from the 7.85 million bpd in the last quarter of 2016.

    The above tracking and port figures were obtained by filtering the data to show vessels that have been discharged, are in the process of discharging, or are underway.

    It’s interesting to note that the vessel-tracking data for the fourth quarter of 2016 shows Saudi exports actually lower than what the JODI numbers state, by some 120,000 bpd.

    The shipping data, however, also shows exports in the first quarter of 2017 were 370,000 bpd higher than what JODI reports.

    A small discrepancy could be ascribed to differences in assessing how much oil was aboard each vessel, but 370,000 bpd is a large gap, equivalent to about five very large crude carriers (VLCCs) a month.

    The JODI data is based on self-reporting. The Saudis, along with the other countries that participate in the venture, provide the numbers themselves, and these are then collated and released monthly.

    The tanker-tracking figures rely on International Maritime Organization (IMO) data provided by individual ships, as well as by collating port and other reports.

    WHAT TO BELIEVE?

    Autrement dit : pour les exportations de pétrole, peut-on se fier aux données déclaratives fournies par les saoudiens ?

    Poser la question en ces termes, c’est quasiment y répondre… Ce qui est intéressant, c’est l’intervention dans le débat des données issues du #scraping et du #tracking.

  • Iraq plans to acquire ’large fleet’ of oil tankers | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-shipping-oil-idUSKBN15W10M

    Iraq plans to acquire a “large fleet” of oil tankers to transport the OPEC nation’s crude to global markets, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said in a statement on Friday.

    The nation’s tanker fleet was largely destroyed during the U.S.-led offensive to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, according to the state-run Iraqi Oil Tankers Company’s website. The company owned as many as 24 tankers in the 1980s.

  • Exclusive: Iran capitalizes on OPEC oil cut to sell millions of barrels - sources | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-oil-tankers-idUSKBN14Q1ON

    Iran has sold more than 13 million barrels of oil that it had long held on tankers at sea, capitalizing on an OPEC output cut deal from which it is exempted to regain market share and court new buyers, according to industry sources and data.

    In the past three months, Tehran has sold almost half the oil it had held in floating storage, which had tied up many of its tankers as it struggled to offload stocks in an oversupplied global market.

    The amount of Iranian oil held at sea has dropped to 16.4 million barrels, from 29.6 million barrels at the beginning of October, according to Thomson Reuters Oil Flows data. Before that sharp drop, the level had barely changed in 2016; it was 29.7 million barrels at the start of last year, the data showed.

  • SYRIE : POUR EN FINIR AVEC CETTE HISTOIRE DE GAZODUCS | Kurultay.fr

    http://kurultay.fr/blog/?p=1083

    L’histoire est entendue, la guerre civile qui ensanglante depuis plus de 5 ans la Syrie ne peut avoir que des origines secrètes – cachées par les médias occidentaux – et qu’il faudrait chercher dans les tréfonds de ces âmes avilies par l’argent et le vice que l’on rencontrerait à foison sous les turbans arabes ou les chapeaux de cow-boys texans.

    Ultime avatar des complots judéo-maçonniques qui ont agité les esprits névrosés du début du XXème siècle (jusqu’aux horreurs que l’on sait), tout ne serait aujourd’hui que conjuration pour le pétrole et le gaz, qu’affaire de “gros sous” et de géopolitique de ressources énergétiques en voie d’épuisement[1].

    C’est ainsi que le printemps arabe de 2011, qui a touché la Syrie mais aussi la Tunisie, le Bahrein, l’Egypte…, serait réductible à une banale “vengeance” d’émirs qatariens et d’islamistes turcs, secondés évidemment par la CIA, et animés par l’appât du gain qui leur aurait échappé du fait de la résistance de Bachar el-Assad le président “légalement élu” de la Syrie.

    • Après un Julien Salingues, voilà qu’Alain Gresh a son tour prends « le train » des médias dominants ! Haro sur les anti-Occidentaux, nous ressortir la vieille antienne de « l’ad Hitlérium » il fallait le faire et je m’y attendais un peu il faut dire. Alep et la défaite occidentale fait sortir les loups du bois ou dévoilent la vraie nature des « rebelles sous perfusion » des médias dominants. Zéro pointé

    • Toujours aussi clivant la Syrie... Pour ma part, c’est une vieille relations de travail mais je n’arrive toujours pas à m’expliquer la passion soudaine (pour quelqu’un qui a vécu sous le père avant le fils, sans que personne ne s’en émeuve beaucoup en France) qui exalte les jeunes chantres de la révo syrienne (Alain @Nouvelles_d’Orient , je ne parle pas pour toi, on est presque aussiv vieux :-()

    • Oui, parce qu’on veut un monde en noir et blanc. On peut reconnaître que les révolutions arabes ont été des mouvements authentiques, profonds, mobilisant largement, rejetant une forme de pouvoir, du Caire à Damas en passant par Manama. Ces mouvements n’ont pas été voulus par les Etats-Unis (qui, selon certaines, auraient planifié l’arrivée des Frères en Egypte !) mais que les occidentaux, les pays du Golfe et d’autres, interviennent pour faire basculer les choses en leur faveur. Au-delà, un des enjeux est l’intégration de l’islam politique au jeu politique et le refus de cette intégration ne peut aboutir qu’à des retours en arrière et à des dictatures comme en Egypte qui répriment non seulement les Frères mais tout ce qui pense et bouge (ce que n’implique pas que j’ai de la sympathie pour les Frères, qui sont un mouvement conservateur et économiquement libéral). Enfin, sur le pétrole, indépendamment des positions adoptées sur la crise syrienne, je pense qu’il reste des faits et que rien de ce que j’ai lu n’implique que le pétrole ait joué un rôle majeur dans cette crise (mais je suis prêt à reconnaître que je me suis trompé si je tombe sur une étude sérieuse, ou une réfutation argumentée de l’article que j’ai publié).

    • Bonjour @alaingresh ,
      J’intervenais en commentaires sur Nouvelle d’Orient jadis (une orange bien mûre ;-) )
      Merci d’intervenir ici.
      Je suis frappée que les médias essaient d’assimiler les Frères Musulmans à Al Quaida et à Daesh.
      Bien sûr c’est un mouvement très conservateur (mais les populations des zones rurales des pays arabes, peu alphabétisées, sont très religieuses et très conservatrices, les Frères sont souvent un mouvement représentatif de cela). En Egypte pas mal de FM étaient commerçants ce qui va avec l’idéologie libérale. Cela me parait caricatural et diabolisant de les assimiler à Al Quaida et à Daesh, d’autant que le mouvement des FM n’est pas homogène (d’après ma fille, qui a vécu en Egypte pendant l’année de la révolution, les jeunes FM pouvaient avoir des conceptions plus ouvertes et modernes).

    • Oh scandaleux de lire de tels horreurs, si Mr Gresh les Usa, étaient derrière les pseudo-révolutions arabes ou « printemps » avec la main de l’équipe a Georges Soros et Mac Cain la NED qui finance tous les changements de régimes déjà avant la chute de l’Urss. rien que pour la Syrie voici les bailleurs de fonds derrière l’agression contre la Syrie : https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/apr/29/diversity-inclusion-ngo-board?CMP=share_btn_fb et ici la liste des groupes terroristes que vous appelez sans doute « rebelles modérés » sauf qu’ils modèrent les têtes de ces pauvres syriens sacrifiés au nom du pétrole ou du gaz : http://fr.etilaf.org/press/communique-conjoint.html
      Contrairement ce que vous dites les USa sont derrière les changements violents de régimes et manipulent les Frères Musulmans depuis le début après les anglais : https://syria360.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dia-syria-muslimbrotherhoodpressureintensifies-2.pdf archives NSA ou CIA ça vous va ? En France Hollande, Juppé Fabius qui aime bien Al Nosra (qui fait du bon boulot) et ces agents français les soeurs Kodmani, Burgat et autres journalistes djihadistes pro-Qatar Nabil Enasri, Romain Caillet etc...La liste des idiots-utiles impliqués dans le scénario syrien : http://appelsolidaritesyrie.free.fr/ACTUALITE/130708_SYRIE_LETTRE_ELYSEE/130708_SYRIE_LISTE_ELYSEE.pdf plus le nerf de la guerre : http://codssy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Bilan-2015.pdf
      Le grand « plan du grand moyen-orient élargi » tel qu’il été pensé par les néoconservateurs américains du PNAC :http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/sunday-review/how-5-countries-could-become-14.html?smid=fb-share
      des preuves en veux tu en voilà : http://www.strategicsinternational.com/9_Khadera.pdf
      Les gagnants et les perdants des « régime change » selon le journal des forces armées Us :http://larsanderson.org/files/2011/10/armed-forces-journal-blood-borders-june-2006.pdf
      Gal Wesley Clarke lui-même en a parlé des 7 pays a dégommer en 5 ans ..C’est du néocolonialisme mais du colonialisme violent depuis le 9/11 je vous rappelle ce qu’est le colonialisme afin que vous puissiez vous rendre compte de vos crimes à vous les journalistes : http://www.larevuedesressources.org/IMG/pdf/CESAIRE.pdf
      La France est responsable donc en partie du génocide du peuple syrien et la destruction du pays car elle soutient des kurdes :"" Khaled Issa Le Parti de l’Union Démocratique -PYD, exprime son entière solidarité avec la France, présente ses condoléances aux familles des victimes, et apporte son entier soutien aux forces de l’ordre dans sa lutte contre le terrorisme.
      Le PYD est déterminé plus que jamais dans son combat pour vaincre les terroristes.
      Il appelle à la mobilisation totale derrière le Président de République Française dans ces circonstances particulières.
      Paris, 13 Novembre 2015.
      Khaled ISSA
      14 novembre 2015, 09:53""
      Des activistes du CANVAS de Gène Sharp et Mac Cain (DNI) Georges Soros de la NED sont responsables des crimes dans ce pays mais aussi dans d’autres pays avant l’ex-Yougoslavie, Ukraine, Lybie, Somalie, Liban Soudan etc...Liste de crimes très longue ! Avoir soutenu l’UCK membre d’Al Qaida que les néocons américains ont importés contre les méchants serbes : http://csamary.free.fr/articles/Publications/Restauration_capitaliste_files/2008_DiscussionDiana.Johnstone.pdf
      A qui le tour ?? Mr Gresh en tant que journaliste vous devrait un jour rendre des comptes revoir les lois de Nuremberg que tous les jours les pays européens anglo-saxons violent au nom de leurs intérêts. http://bdc.aege.fr/public/Le_Nouvel_Ordre_du_Monde_Arabe.pdf

    • Le règlement du conflit syrien semble avoir pour composante l’entrée dans le capital de Rosneft du Qatar. Dans les articles que l’on trouve à ce sujet, il semblerait que cette participation soit une façon d’obtenir la coopération de ce pays. Du coup, toutes les argumentations tentant de faire comme si les intérêts des pays pétroliers et gaziers n’étaient pas en cause dans la guerre en Syrie deviennent suspectes, à mes yeux...

    • http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/petrole-glencore-et-le-qatar-entrent-au-capital-de-rosneft-po

      Le Kremlin a annoncé la prise de participation à hauteur de 19,5 % du fonds souverain du Qatar, associé au négociant anglo-suisse en matières premières Glengore, dans le fleuron russe Rosneft.

      Les sanctions européennes et américaines n’y ont rien fait. Rosneft, le géant russe du pétrole, va être partiellement privatisé. Le Kremlin a fait savoir, dans la soirée du 7 décembre, que le premier négociant en matières premières du monde, l’anglo-suisse Glencore, et le fonds souverain du Qatar prennent 19,5 % des parts de la compagnie Rosneft, dans une transaction évaluée à 10,5 millions d’euros.

    • Le deal entre le Qatar et Rosneft a pour but de faire abandonner au Qatar son projet de participer à la destruction programmée de la Syrie.’’.La Fédération de Russie, qui détient directement 50% du capital de Rosneft, vient d’en céder 19,5% à Glencore et au Qatar.

      On ignore la répartition exacte du capital.

      Rosneft est la première entreprise pétrolière mondiale.

      Cette décision intervient alors que l’élection de Donald Trump à la présidence des États-Unis laissent prévoir la levée des sanctions économiques contre Moscou, et alors que l’accord de réduction de la production pétrolière prise au sein de l’OPEC devrait permettre à la hausse des prix de se poursuivre lentement.

      Rosneft avait par ailleurs acquis le pétrolier Bachneft juste avant cette privatisation. À cette occasion, selon le Comité d’enquête de la Russie, le ministre de l’Économie, Alexeï Oulioukaïev, aurait illégalement perçu 1,8 million d’euros pour donner son accord. Le ministre a été placé en résidence surveillée.
      La valeur boursière de Rosneft est évaluée à 55,02 milliards d’euros. Les actions cédées à Glencore et au Qatar l’ont été avec une décote de 2%, soit 10,5 milliards d’euros.

      Le Qatar est déjà actionnaire majoritaire de Glencore.

      Les 10,5 milliards d’euros de recettes seront reversés à l’entreprise publique Rosneftegaz, qui devrait en verser à son tour une partie à l’État. Ils seraient alors utilisés pour couvrir le déficit provoqué par les sanctions économiques européennes.

      Séparant totalement sa politique économique de sa politique étrangère, la Russie a ainsi scellé une alliance avec le Qatar qu’elle combat militairement en Syrie.’’.

    • @marielle le petit rajout sur les états voyou dont on sait qui la définie (Usa, UE) est vraiment de trop a mon humble avis
      . Depuis plus de quarante ans, la compagnie suisse se serait spécialisée dans le travail avec les États-voyous, contournant les sanctions et autres embargos auxquels ils sont soumis. Cuba, l’Iran, la Libye, l’Afrique du sud (au temps de l’apartheid) et l’URSS (au temps de la guerre en Afghanistan) feraient partie de cette liste." l

    • La congressiste démocrate de Hawaï Tulsi Gabbard, soutien de Bernie Sanders pendant la campagne présidentielle, a rompu avec le discours à sens unique des médias en accusant les États-Unis de financer et d’armer des groupes terroristes d’al-Qaïda et d’ISIS / Daech / EI. Elle a introduit une résolution intitulée le « Stop Arming Terrorists Act ». https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0UW0pnvIHE

  • Brent Caps Biggest Weekly Advance Since 2009 on OPEC Agreement - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-02/oil-heads-for-biggest-weekly-advance-in-15-months-on-opec-cuts

    Brent oil capped its biggest weekly gain since 2009 after OPEC approved its first supply cut in eight years, with attention now shifting to compliance with the deal and how other producers will react to a price rally.
    […]
    Everyone wins, but U.S. shale producers are the big winners from the OPEC deal,” Francisco Blanch, head of commodity markets research at Bank of America, said by telephone. “The agreement made sense purely on economic logic. OPEC wanted to end the price war.

  • En Asie, l’exploration pétrolière et la construction navale premières bénéficiaires de l’accord de l’OPEP.
    Dans la vidéo en tête d’article, la commentatrice de Bloomberg présente l’accord comme une grande victoire de l’Arabie Séoudite.
    À comparer avec https://seenthis.net/messages/547448

    New Era for Oil Reverberates Through Asia’s Shipyards to Runways - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/new-era-for-oil-reverberates-through-asia-s-shipyards-to-runways

    While the first OPEC production cuts since 2008 were inked as Asia slept, the winners and losers from the surprise deal are already becoming clear in the world’s biggest oil-consuming region.

    U.S. crude is hugging $50 a barrel following Wednesday’s 9.3 percent surge, the biggest since February, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is projecting further gains of more than 10 percent by the end of the first half as the current oil surplus withers into a deficit. A revival in prices could prove challenging to countries like India and China, which import most of the crude they consume. Yet the region is also home to some of the largest players when it comes to shipping and oil-market infrastructure.

    It’s extremely hopeful and optimistic for those traditional manufacturing companies in Asia,” Hong Sung Ki, a commodities analyst at Samsung Futures Inc., said by phone from Seoul. “Oil explorers as well as steel companies that supply pipeline makers will start boosting investment and production as oil prices are on the rise in the long term.

    Asian energy stocks are surging the most in almost 10 months, with exploration companies such as Australia’s Santos Ltd. and Tokyo-based Inpex Corp., Japan’s biggest oil and gas explorer, leading gains.

  • Exclusive: How Putin, Khamenei and Saudi prince got OPEC deal done | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-meeting-idUSKBN13Q4WG

    Russian President Vladimir Putin played a crucial role in helping OPEC rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia set aside differences to forge the cartel’s first deal with non-OPEC Russia in 15 years.

    Interventions ahead of Wednesday’s OPEC meeting came at key moments from Putin, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, OPEC and non-OPEC sources said.

    Putin’s role as intermediary between Riyadh and Tehran was pivotal, testament to the rising influence of Russia in the Middle East since its military intervention in the Syrian civil war just over a year ago.

    Putin’s role as intermediary between Riyadh and Tehran was pivotal
    Gné !? Changement typographique chez Reuters, dorénavant, il faut écrire ReuTers :-D