Cheap oil poured on troubled waters

Washington has persuaded the Saudis to flood the market with oil to push down prices, decimate Russia’s economy, and reduce Moscow’s resistance to further Nato encirclement and the spreading of US military bases across Central Asia.

The US-Saudi scheme has slashed oil prices by nearly a half since their peak in June. The sharp decline in prices has burst the bubble in high-yield debt, which has increased the turbulence in the credit markets while pushing global equities into a tailspin.

Even so, the roiled markets and spreading contagion have not deterred Washington from pursuing its reckless plan, which uses 
Riyadh’s stooge-regime to prosecute Washington’s global resource war.

The Saudis are targeting sales to Asia for the discounts and in particular, its major Asian customer China, where it is reportedly offering its crude for a mere $50 to $60 a barrel rather than the earlier price of around $100.

The result is a market panic that is gaining momentum daily. China is quite happy to buy the cheap oil, but her close allies, Russia and Iran, are being hit severely.

The public reason claimed is to gain new markets in a global market of weakening oil demand.

The real reason is to put pressure on Iran and her nuclear programme, and on Russia to end her support for Bashar al-Assad in Syria. More than 50 per cent of Russian state revenue comes from its export sales of oil and gas. The US-Saudi oil price manipulation is aimed at destabilising several strong opponents of US globalist policies.

Targets include Iran and Syria, both allies of Russia in opposing a US sole superpower. The principal target, however, is Putin’s Russia, the single greatest threat today to that superpower hegemony. The destructive and destabilising knock-on effects of this lunatic plan are visible everywhere. Plummeting oil prices are making it harder for energy companies to get the funding they need to roll over their debt or maintain current operations.

The Saudi-led insurgency has reversed the direction of the market, put global stocks into a nosedive and triggered a panic in the credit markets.

And while the financial system edges closer to a 
full-blown crisis every day, policymakers in Washington have remained resolutely silent on the issue, never 
uttering as much as a peep of protest for a Saudi policy that can only be described as a 
deliberate act of financial 
terrorism.

Why is that? Why have Obama and Co kept their mouths shut while oil prices have plunged, domestic industries have been demolished, and stocks have gone down?

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace

Dundee

I read with interest the article by George Kerevan (Perspective, 17 December) on the oil price and its effect on the world situation, and in particular Russia. I would be very interested in a similar article from Mr Kerevan – who consistently advised us to vote Yes in the recent referendum – assessing the situation of an independent Scotland in the current economic situation and prevailing oil price.

Andrew P Godfrey

St Mary’s Drive

Dunblane

George Kerevan takes on a Sisyphean task “untangling the knots” of oil, politics and foreign relations.

Noticeably, two particularly “knotty problems” of the economics and politics of oil are of great significance.Take, for instance, the decision by Opec, especially Saudi Arabia, to maintain production levels of oil. Is it just Middle East politics or is it to force down prices and hit higher-cost US shale? Or consider some speculation a couple of years ago about Chinese intentions in the North Sea.

Was it to exercise their market position to force down oil prices for their economic benefit?

Rather it has been suggested that the high price of North Sea light crude oil was like getting a “bonus”. Hence it provided the foreign currency to buy cheaper oil from other countries much nearer home.

Arguably trying to untangle the knots of the politics of global oil is like the “endless heart-breaking job of 
Sisyphus”.

EllisThorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie