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The ignorance of Ian Welsh at Firedoglake regarding the hijacking of the The Sirius Star, a Saudi oil tanker, is so astoundingly sad but yet expected I still need to fully digest its thick cluelessness before fully tearing it to pieces but I had to post it nonetheless.

Firedoglake » Blowbacks a B*tch: Somali Piracy Edition

The bottom line is this: solving this ideally requires a carrier, or rather a carrier task force. Normally that would be the US’s job (it has half the naval tonnage in the world and plenty of carrier task forces) but US carriers are busy doing other things.

Geopolitically speaking, a large part of what the rest of the world pays the US for is keeping the sealanes clear. Saudi Arabia hasn’t spent decades investing money in the US for idealistic reasons: it has received security in exchange. If the US can’t deal with this, other countries will (the Brits will probably wind up sending a carrier and escort ships to deal with it, in combination with other countries. Harriers are particularly useful for this sort of operation).

Bloomberg.com: India & Pakistan

The Sirius Star, which belongs to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned shipping line, Vela International Marine Ltd, was seized along with its crew of 25 on Nov. 15, about 420 nautical miles (833 kilometers) off Somalia. That sort of boat costs about $148 million new, and the Sirius Star was carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude valued at about $110 million.

terrorism, nutroots, oil, oil tanker, Sirius Star, firedoglake, pirates, hijacking

Think Progress wrong again.

Excerpts: Gibson Interviews Sarah Palin

GIBSON: But this is not just reforming a government. This is also running a government on the huge international stage in a very dangerous world. When I asked John McCain about your national security credentials, he cited the fact that you have commanded the Alaskan National Guard and that Alaska is close to Russia. Are those sufficient credentials?

PALIN: But it is about reform of government and it’s about putting government back on the side of the people, and that has much to do with foreign policy and national security issues Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that’s with the energy independence that I’ve been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.

Pipeline Operations

TAPS carries approximately 17 percent of the nation’s domestic oil production and has transported more than 15 billion barrels of crude oil.

AnalysisOnline

Since its start-up in 1977, the Alaska pipeline has carried more than 15 billion barrels of oil to the lower-48 states. Today, Alaska provides almost 17 percent of domestic U.S. oil production, according to the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

Northern Crude

EIA
EIE Crude

Technorati Tags: palin, oil, nutroots, oil supply, gibson

A company has a right to make as much profit as possible including oil companies but if this were 1808 and the three three wagon wheel manufactures in town colluded to make record profits while the town folk struggled to make ends meet while keeping trips into town at a minimum to avoid additional wear on their already worn wagon wheels, it wouldn’t be long before wagon wheel company owners mysteriously “left town” while their factories were “re-tooled”.

Sometimes it does take a village.

VOA News - Exxon Mobil Breaks Profit Record on Oil Price Surge

The world’s biggest oil company, Exxon Mobil, says its profits shot up 14 percent in the second-quarter of the year compared to a year ago, as oil prices soared.

The company Thursday reported earning nearly $11.7 billion, breaking its own record for the biggest quarterly profit ever reported by a U.S. company.

Exxon says it made $10 billion from oil production and sales, benefitting from the record high price of oil.

ENN: Big Oil Fattens Up at the Public Trough

As Big Oil continue to rake in record profits - $123 billion in 2007 - the oil and gas industry is due to receive $32.9 billion in tax breaks, royalty relief, subsidies and other support from public coffers through 2013.

Technorati Tags: oil, energy, exxon, mobile

Houston Chronicle - Houston backers shell out for Obama

Barack Obama collected more than $1.5 million in campaign funding Thursday night in two Houston neighborhoods built by oil and natural gas profits while telling his audiences that America needs to liberate itself from those fuels.

Picture this: Standing on a platform just above the water level of a lighted indoor pool at a Memorial home, Obama said the nation needs to develop wind and solar energy and other alternative sources. He spoke to about 55 paying guests at candlelit, round dinner tables under skylights in the 18,000-square-foot home of John Thrash, chief of a natural gas infrastructure company, and wife Becca Cason Thrash. County appraisal district records list the home’s market value at about $5.5 million.

Oil down almost $20 a barrell since Pres. Bush lited the moratorium on offshore drilling this past Monday and as the republicans have begun to push for legislation allowing the same.

No surprise that the media has been virtually silent on the almost $20 drop.

CLQ08.NYM: Summary for Crude Oil Friday Aug 08 - Yahoo! Finance

Last Trade: $128.50

Fact Sheet: Allowing Offshore Exploration to Help Address Rising Fuel Costs

Today, President Bush lifted an executive ban on producing oil from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the Democratically controlled Congress. To reduce pressure on prices, President Bush recognizes the need to increase the supply of oil – especially here at home. For years, his Administration has called on Congress to expand domestic oil production. Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal – and now Americans are paying the price. When Members of Congress were home for the Fourth of July recess, they heard a clear message from their constituents: take action now to expand domestic oil production.

Technorati Tags: oil, bush, offshore drilling

Think Proress is citing oil spills from Hurricane Katrina as proof Conservative are making “false claims” regarding the safety of offshore drilling.

Think Progress cleverly and deceitfully omits the fact that not one of the spills they mention, or any spill during or after Katrina, came from an offshore oil rig or drilling operation!

Even Think Progress’s own links point out the fact that the spills came from “unpurged pipelines” and “onshore storage facilities”.

Think Progress » Conservatives Echo McCain’s False Claim That Katrina Caused No Oil Spill Damage

The truth is that Hurricane Katrina caused oil spillage so significant it was clearly visible from space. It also wreaked environmental havock near the scale of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

Spills from hurricanes stain coast With gallery | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters unleashed 1 million gallons of oil from one of the massive storage tanks at Murphy Oil’s nearby refinery. The spill spread over 1 square mile and stained 1,700 homes, making it one of the largest environmental spills to occur in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Would be nice if the clever folks at “Think Progress” knew the difference between an Oil Rig and an Oil Refinery or Oil Drilling and Oil Refining…..I’m just saying.

Technorati Tags: oil, oil drilling, think progress, nutroots, katrina

Isn’t funny that democrats who are dead set against oil and the oil industry are now saying that they would like so NATIONALIZE the oil industry. Democrats Maxine Waters and Maurice Hinchey seem to be leading the way, could it be because we could be on the verge of another “oil boom” if drilling offshore produces massive yields and the democrats see $$$ ?

Seems Democrats like oil only when it makes money for and is owned and run by the government.

Current News - FOXNews.com

House Democrats responded to President’s Bush’s call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.

Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.

House Democrats responded to President’s Bush’s call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.

Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most-ardent opponents of off-shore drilling,

“We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market”

Democrats Skip Right Over Socialism; Land Squarely In The Land Of Karl And Hugo | Redstate

Dems want control over U.S. oil flow

The itch to control the U.S. oil industry is spreading among Democrats in Washington, with Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., joining in the chorus to nationalize the energy company assets.

Technorati Tags: oil, oil drilling, offshore drilling, hinchey, waters

Ok, if ya dont like ANWR, how’ bout the ’shelf? (like China’s gonna do?) | SwampBubbles

in 2005, China’s Sinopec signed an agreement with the Cuban government to jointly produce oil in Cuba off the coast of Pinar del Río. Ok so let’s get this straight. The governments of China and Cuba enter into a production sharing agreement … what exactly does that mean? This is when the Cuban government awards the execution of exploration and production activities to an international oil company like Sinopec. The contractor bears the mineral and financial risk of the initiative and, when successful, recovers capital expenditure and costs incurred in the year (cost oil) by means of a share of production.

So now, for your reading pleasure (and Mel Martinez’s) is a timeline of China’s oil exploration efforts in Cuba. This is from the World Security Institute …

Technorati Tags: cuba, china, oil, oil drilling

The Nutroots and the Democrats are up in arms that Dick Cheny referenced George Will saying that “China is drilling for oil off Cuba”.

George Will

Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.

China has had contracts for offshore drilling for four years, China has been shipping drilling equipment to Cuba since 2006 and china has drilled off the coast of Cuba yet somehow the Democrats and an “energy expert” from Miami says Cheney is lying and using “scare tactics”.

Democrats like Speaker Pelosi are crying foul that Cheney referenced Will’s article

Republican leaders – including Vice President Cheney – have recently claimed that China is drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba “60 miles off the coast of Florida.” But the facts show China does not have a deepwater drilling contract in Cuba.

“China is not drilling in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, period…,” said Jorge Piñon, an energy expert at the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy…

“Piñon, who supports oil and gas exploration, said he met with several congressional offices Wednesday about the China-Cuba connection. He said he told them: ‘If you guys want to use this as a scare tactic to lift the moratorium on drilling off the west coast of Florida, at least be factual, be correct.’ They didn’t do their homework.” [6/12/08]

Perhaps Pelosi and Pinon should be a litle more honest and “do their homework”.

Alexander’s Gas & Oil Connections - Sinopec signs up for oil production in Cuba

Cuba oil production to increase with more Chinese equipment arriving

Sino-Cuba energy relations raise concern in Washington

Pedantry and Another Hatchet Job from McClatchy. | The Sundries Shack

Even Florida democrats are aware of the China / Cuba oil drilling and exploration partnership.

Few Americans paid much attention last year when Cuban President Fidel Castro announced China would help explore potentially large oil reserves off Cuba’s northwest coast - not far from the Florida Keys.

But now - with gas prices climbing above $3 a gallon - the prospect of China drilling near the United States has become a hot political issue as two of the world’s largest economies vie for new sources of energy.

Some members of Congress warn that China and other countries could lock up oil supplies at a time when U.S. companies are barred from doing business with Cuba because of a 43-year-old trade embargo.

“We sit here watching China exploit a valuable energy resource within eyesight of the U.S. coast,” said. Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican.

granma.cu - Oil production contract with Chinese enterprise

And because the left loves Aljazeera so much I’ll include a link to their noting China drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba.

Al Jazeera English - Archive - Cuba To Let China Drill For Offshore Oil

Vice President Cheney’s office has already pulled back from the comment which I don’t really understand.

He cited his source as columnist George Will, who last week wrote: “Drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.”

Congressional Democrats pounced on the vice president’s remarks and were backed up by independent energy experts, who called the assertion hyperbole at best and a falsehood at worst.

Cheney’s office said in a statement to The Associated Press that the vice president had erred.

Just for a few second I’ll take the side of the Nutroots and Pelosi but I’ll ask how many times have the Democrats walked up to a microphone and gleefully cite a false and misleading NY Times or Time article to bolster their defeatist agenda? Haditha anyone.

Technorati Tags: oil, energy, politics, china, cuba, cheney, pinon, oil drilling

What is Obama’s plan if and when Oil Company profits plummet?

Obama says he would impose oil windfall profits tax | Reuters

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday he would impose a windfall profits tax on U.S. oil companies as he sought political gain from Americans’ pain over high gasoline prices.

The economy is cyclical and a safe bet would be that by the time Obama took office and his socialist windfall profit tax took hold, the Oil Companies may very well be back to making very little profit, then what…..a retroactive windfall profit tax?

Just asking.

The last Windfall Profit Tax blunder.

By 1988, though, opposition had grown to a fever pitch. The tax
eventually succumbed to its own disappointing results. It had proven to
be a heavy administrative burden, both for taxpayers and the IRS. Oil
industry representatives claimed annual compliance costs of $40 million
to $50 million. Press reports suggested the IRS was spending as much as
$15 million to collect the tax. Overall, it was a heavy cross to bear,
complained oil executives. In 1984 a General Accounting Office report
called the WPT “perhaps the largest and most complex tax ever levied on
a U.S. industry.”

Worse, the tax had yielded less revenue than anticipated
throughout its existence — and none at all in its later years. Oil
prices had failed to continue their dramatic rise; between 1980 and
1986, they had fallen from $30 to just $10 per barrel. Meanwhile, the
WPT’s “base price” — used to calculate tax liability — had continued
to rise with inflation, as required by law. Squeezed from both sides of
the equation, the tax had become a negligible source of revenue.

Technorati Tags: politics, oil, economy, obama, windfall profit tax