evilgenius wrote:Arthur75 wrote:evilgenius wrote:the battle with the Arabs in the 70's (a political one) over oil was waged on the part of the West not for control by a regional entity over supply, but for control over that by the spot market. The sense is that if a market can rule then the US and others whose interests eventually are 'all in' with that will come out well too, even in a swelling world where other regions are coming along.
lol, this myth again :D
For your info, US diplomacy and big oil NEEDED price increase (after US peak in 71 and to start Alaska GOM, North sea) and PUSHED OPEC towards the quotas and price increase, there has been no battle --at all-- with the Arabs about that in the 70ies, quite the contrary, that it was then possible to brand it "arab embargo"( a leaking joke that lasted 3 months and never effective towards the US from KSA especially), was quite practical towards the US populace though, that's true.
So, whose conspiracy theory book did you lift that one from? I mean, the very idea that big oil needed a price increase so they forced the Arab oil embargo. You must be a youngster, not to remember the geopolitical situation of those times.
No conspiracy theory there at all, just simple historical facts (and common knowledge to quite a few people). Even though still clearly totally overlooked by most Americans even "peak oil aware" ones (with the "special" KSA relationship as well quite often overlooked, and most "geopolitical games" around oil and its price in general).
You can check James Akins interviews below for instance (sorry no english version of this thing to my knowledge), also interview of some Berkeley professor :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xewm92 ... les-g_news(911 logo has nothing to do with this doc, added by the guy who posted it)
Basically :
Fuel shortages issues started in the US from US peak, not the embargo
Akins was the guy that audited US capacity for Nixon : conclusion it's a mess
Akins was then US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he clearly pushed price increase during an Algiers OPEC meeting in 72, to a level that OPEC members didn't dare mentioning.
Again price increase was necessary for big oil (and always good for them anyway).
The embargo lasted something like 3 months only, towards a few countries (the US, Holland in Europe), was never effective from KSA towards the US (tankers going from KSA though Barhain directly to vietnam for the US army or even the US).
Akins very clear here : voices started in the US especially from some repub senators on necessity to have some "actions" taken.
He explained them what was going on, they shat up, never any leak.
And then you have plenty of other games around the oil price/prod level with Kissinger, the Shah, Saudi king, etc
Or the "oil glut" episode in 85, where Reagan managed to have the Saudis increase their prod (in order to cut USSR revenues), for instance :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02F-3l1EKsAAgain, very clearly, the "Arab embargo" label for the first oil shock is a total misnomer, but was/is quite practical for US domestic "communication".
The proper label should simply be "US 1971 peak" (first producer of the time, don't forget).