OPEC chief: We can't replace Iranian oil

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Yahoo Finance

The secretary general of OPEC says the oil producing group cannot replace any shortfalls if Iran is attacked and its crude is taken off the market.

Abdalla Salem El-Badri also says OPEC has no contingency plans to produce more if Iran is attacked.

He spoke Thursday at OPEC headquarters in Vienna. Iran is OPEC's second-largest oil producer.

Both the United States and Israel have not ruled out a military strike on Iran as a last option if it does not give up uranium enrichment and heed other U.N. Security Council demands meant to dispel the fear Tehran wants to make nuclear arms.

*Note, this is complete content of Yahoo article

Read more: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080710/eu_opec_iran.html?.v=1

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Newshoggers has a great analysis of this titled "Iran War Hype Creates Energy Policy SNAFU":

Excerpts:

*You can forget drilling in Alaska or in US offshore waters as a method of reducing medium term gas prices. All the production such wells could give wouldn't match the loss of OPEC production so prices will rise anyway. And within a decade all that US production would have dried up and OPEC would still have lots of black gold in the ground - which they can then sell at even higher prices for plastics production even if the West converted to renewable energy sources on a massive scale.

*Meanwhile, OPEC producers like Jordan, the Saudis and the UAE are quietly going nuclear under cover of the focus on Iran's nuclear program.

*It's a move that Israel isn't too happy about - they simply don't want anyone breaking even a part of their regional nuclear monopoly (maybe especially the Saudis, who bought nuke-capable intermediate-range missiles from Russia a decade and more ago and have quietly kept them in their silos ever since) - but right now they can't make too much of a stink about it simply because the US and the West need to show they can play "good cop" to Muslim nuclear aspirations too.

*It's a real SNAFU situation, over an entirely fictitious crisis which the War party are using to push for war or conditions leading to war. Iran doesn't have a nuke, has no real prospect of getting bomb-capable material using their current enrichment facilities, has no workable design for a weapon and has such unreliable delivery systems that a full quarter even of their tried and tested shorter range missiles apparently fail so badly they have to photoshop their publicity pics. But we're all paying - and will continue to pay ever increasing amounts - for the dreams of those who always said "real men go to Tehran" even before the first tank rolled across the Iraqi border back in 2003.

The conclusion is obvious - energy policy making will continue to be a hopeless mess until those who want war at any price are contained.

To read entire the entire article http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2008/07/iran-war-hype-c.html

[conspirator]

1. $300 oil soon n/t

[LynnTheDem]

2. It's a total indictment of the human race, that we talk of oil shortages

if a nation is unprovkingly, supremely illegally attacked.

An unprovoked illegal shameful disgusting act of war which will cause the deaths of hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of men, women, children, infants, pets, wildlife etc etc etc.

But all we're truly concerned about is whether we'll have an oil shortage.

[Nihil]

7. I wish I could recommend your reply and get *THAT* on the front page.

> An unprovoked illegal shameful disgusting act of war which will cause
> the deaths of hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of men,
> women, children, infants, pets, wildlife etc etc etc.
>
> But all we're truly concerned about is whether we'll have an oil shortage.

That is one sickening yet all too true observation.
:-(

[Prefer]

3. Checkmate: We either choose Israel or our Oil

it's that simple.

Are you willing to afford unlimited prices to protect Israel from the bed they made for themselves?

And CAN you afford to?

[paparush]

4. Exxon, et al, set to make MORE record profits.

Congress will not reign in this regime (um..that's OUR regime). In fact, they are greasing the tracks in front of the war train.

Its time for We, the people, to stand up and take back what these criminals stole from us in 2000 and 2004.

Massive strikes.
Massive protests.
Shut DC down.

But, I know in my heart that one day soon, the news will come across the wire that US forces have struck Iran, and America will sit there..staring blankly.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Doesn't Work Anymore

Strike? They outsource your job to China.
Protest? The media treats them as a non-event.

[Ian David]

6. "Nobody could have anticipated..." n/t