[seahorse3]

Ostensibly, the US "democratized" Iraq back in 2003 to plant the seed of democracy in the Middle East. Well, last year, we got the first Arab Spring, the fruits of all that effort? Looks like the seeds of democracy are now blowing in the wrong direction, though, to the Eastern oil rich provinces of our good friends and dictators of Saudi Arabia's eastern oil fields. Either that or the Iranians have planted a Trojan Horse or "heretical" Sunni brothers right where it hurts us the most. Either way, doesn't look good. We can't allow either democracy or heretics there.

[Sys1]

You can think whatever you want with case 1 and 2 the most probable
1) happy hoax
2) trader hoax
3) real new silented by authorities to prevent an economic crash
4) Fake news test in order to test behavior of the market when it will become real (like nuclear test)

[Obbeg]

Pipelines feed one of the world's largest oil terminals Ras-Tanura - Huge fire from the explosion can be seen from large distance

Breaking on presstv.ir

Gold & Silver price go up as Oil price go up.

[Obbeg]

Oil Down 50%. Gasoline up 100%

Why is Gasoline 100% higher when international crude oil price have fallen 50%? Today Gasoline must be $2 per gallon because international crude oil price have fallen 50%.

Read all..

http://dangerousmother.com/oil.html

[Satori]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2285ec12 ... z1nutD7cJY

"“This report is completely false,” a Saudi industry official said. He said there had been “no incident whatsoever”.

He said the report of a pipeline explosion was a deliberate hoax put out to move oil markets. “There are certain parties who are upset with Saudi Arabia’s role in the current situation,” the official said."

[MD]

gl reading thru the haze. a small enough pipeline maybe easy enough to hide. who knows. If it was truly large there would be no way to hide it.

[Rod_Cloutier]

A hoax to hide an impeding war with Iran (which would drive up oil prices sky high), this non-event would be a convienent scapegoat to hide higher prices from the public??

[Anvil]

This pipe line explosion is the biggest thing to happen all year it all over press TV that for sure and they would have Shiite population reporting to back that up id say.

It looks like the Western Fascists have a challenge on there hands covering up this disaster.

[jbrovont]

This reminds me of Iran shutting down shipping to conduct drills for a few hours, or starting a stir about cutting off EU countries without actually having to do it. It wouldn't surprise me to learn this was just a psyop (as suggested above) to test what would happen, or another "in-your-eye" move by Iran to show they can cause problems.

If Iran reports a pipeline blew up, and we all go into buy-and-horde mode, then they get more volume while *increasing* price. On the other hand if the same happens and we shrug it off and be a little more conservative in our driving, they'll sell less product, and the combination of reduced price and volume will lower their revenues, hurting them instead.

My response to this will be car-pooling tomorrow and taking the weekend off so that I don't have to drive. Take that gas prices! lol

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2285ec12-63ea-11e1-8762-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nutD7cJY

"“This report is completely false,” a Saudi industry official said. He said there had been “no incident whatsoever”.

He said the report of a pipeline explosion was a deliberate hoax put out to move oil markets. “There are certain parties who are upset with Saudi Arabia’s role in the current situation,” the official said."

[Obbeg]

15 Killed in Clashes Near Israel Border

Human rights activists in Syria reported that eight soldiers and sever defectors were killed during an exchange of fire in the Quneitra region, near the border with Israel.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 98,00.html

[babystrangeloop]

Is high oil price replacing Greece as next big threat?
Michael Babad / Globe and Mail / March 2, 2012

"Oil has retraced a bit but no one believes the Saudis, they think the pipeline explosion really happened," said Nicola Duke, an independent crude futures trader in London.

[dolanbaker]

The story is still on the Iran news website, we just need some independent observer to verify one way or the other.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/229508.html

[babystrangeloop]

we just need some independent observer to verify one way or the other.

If only google would roll out Google Earth Realtime High-Resolution Edition.
(you know you want it!)

[Anvil]

The problem would be there are no MSM observes to verify the hole in the oil market made by the pipe line explosion in the dictatorship of Saudi.
This comes as no surprise as MSM is totally censored. If supply drops off, then the real questions will start and then Fascists West will become very uncomfortable. It could be very awkward if sheeple start to use there brains. Which according to roomers do exists inside there thick skulls.

[PeakOiler]

Bump.

According to this article, the Michigan oil spill was the largest on-land spill in the US:
keranews article

Pipeline Opponents Cite Michigan Spill

The group Public Citizen wants the Texas Railroad Commission to further regulate oil pipelines. They’re concerned about the Seaway pipeline, which is owned by a company responsible for the biggest on-shore oil spill in U.S. history. The National Transportation Safety Board just blasted Enbridge Energy, a Canadian company, for not following its own safety procedures in the Michigan pipeline spill.

Two years ago, more than 840,000 gallons of heavier tar sands oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River when the pipeline burst. More than 300 people got sick from inhaling toxic benzene.

Enbridge is half owner of Seaway, a 36-year old oil pipeline in Texas that has been converted from carrying light crude oil to transporting heavier tar sands oil. Canadian tar sands oil is diluted with condensate, a natural gas liquid, which allows it to flow through pipelines.

Lets hope Enbridge, et. al., does a better job with the Seaway pipeline, or one of these days, Texas may set the record for onshore oil spills.

[autonomous]

There's been another major gas pipeline explosion in Mexico:

At least 26 oil workers were killed Tuesday and several dozen injured in a huge explosion and fire along a natural gas pipeline in northeastern Mexico, officials said. Pemex's vast operations in Tamaulipas, a violent state dominated by drug cartels, have suffered thefts of gas and oil and the kidnappings of numerous workers.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/09/26-killed-in-gas-pipeline-explosion-fire-in-mexico.html

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .

I caught the tail end of a news clip about an oil spill off California . . . any details . . . anyone?

Cheers.

[dohboi]

Good catch, SP. Here's what I got off the webs:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... tml#page=1
105,000 gallons of oil may have spilled in Santa Barbara County

So not a major one, but as other reports point out, it is dredging up memories of a much larger spill in the area some 46 years ago.

[Sixstrings]

Odd, no mention of this on CNN and msbnc and such, that I ever saw.

Googled some news on it:

California Oil Spill: State of Emergency Declared
http://www.wsj.com/video/california-oil-spill-state-of-emergency-declared/EAE3024E-DCA4-4BDD-8F3E-035EB9ADCA2C.html

Extent of California Oil Spill Being Assessed
The oil spill in Santa Barbara County could be as large as 105,000 gallons in worst-case scenario
http://www.wsj.com/articles/california-oil-cleanup-starts-as-brown-declares-emergency-1432214330

Cleanup of oil-fouled California beach enters third day
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/21/us-usa-california-oilspill-idUSKBN0O52MY20150521

California Oil Spill Has Deadly Effect on Wildlife
http://abcnews.go.com/US/california-oil-spill-deadly-effect-wildlife/story?id=31205882

[ROCKMAN]

The company operating the pipeline should, of course, be investigated for any indications of negligence. As pointed out that long ago oil spill got the country focused on such situations. Regarding that here's a more complete story of offshore CA oil contamination:

On January 28, 1969, after drilling 3,500 below the ocean floor, a Union Oil Company drilling platform six miles off Santa Barbara, suffered a blowout. Between 80,000 barrels and 100,000 barrels of oil flowed into the Pacific Ocean and onto beaches, including Summerland – where the U.S. offshore industry began in 1896 with wells drilled from piers. Problems at the Union Oil platform began when roughnecks began to retrieve the pipe in order to replace a drill bit and pressure became dangerously low, according to a report by the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). A natural gas blowout occurred. An initial attempt to cap the hole was successful but led to a tremendous buildup of pressure. The expanding mass created five breaks in an east-west fault on the ocean floor, releasing oil and gas from deep beneath the earth,” UCSB noted. It will take workers days to control the well – by pumping drilling mud down the borehole at a rate of 1,500 barrels an hour. “The techniques, equipment and resources necessary to combat an oil spill of this magnitude did not exist at the time,” said UCSB geologist Keith C. Clarke. “On the eleventh day, chemical mud was successfully used to seal the cracks in the seafloor, but only after approximately three million gallons of oil escaped.”

Earth Day is born in the spring following the spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be established in 1970. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be established the following year – joining several other federal agencies regulating the industry – public opinion turns against offshore exploration. “Images of spilled oil bubbling to the ocean’s surface and covering birds and other wildlife have firmly cemented in much of the public mind that offshore drilling is dangerous,” claims Drew Thornley in Energy & the Environment: Myths & Facts.

California Oil Seeps - Researchers have found that natural offshore seeps near Goleta alone have leaked up to 25 tons of oil each day – for several hundred thousand years. According to the National Research Council, natural processes are responsible for more than 60 percent of the petroleum that enters North American ocean waters – and more than 45 percent of the petroleum that enters ocean waters worldwide. A 2009 study by Woods Hole and UCSB was the first to quantify the amount of oil residue in seafloor sediments from natural petroleum seeps off Santa Barbara. The study estimated the amount of oil in the sediments down current from the seeps to be the equivalent of approximately 80 Exxon Valdez oil spills.

Researchers have found that natural offshore seeps near Goleta, California, alone have leaked up to 25 tons of oil each day – for the last several hundred thousand years. It was near there in Santa Barbara County that beached tar balls indicated the Summerland field extended into the Pacific – leading turn-of-the-century oilmen to build piers. Public debate continues about protecting the environment of coastal California. “Ironically, research shows that drilling can actually reduce natural seepage, as it relieves the pressure that drives oil and gas up from ocean floors and into ocean waters,” notes Thornley in his Energy & the Environment: Myths & Facts.

California Oil Seeps - “Oil and asphalt seeps in the vicinity of the Summerland field were known since prehistoric times,” notes Wikipedia about the Summerland Oil Field. In 1896 – using piers equipped with cable-tool rigs – California oilmen launched the offshore industry. “The same view in 2009,” Wikipedia adds, “the piers and oil wells are gone, and the beach is a tourist destination.” In 1999, two peer-reviewed studies found that natural seepage in the northern Santa Barbara Channel “was significantly reduced by oil production,” he concludes. Researchers found that seepage declined 50 percent over two decades because, “as oil was pumped from the reservoir, the pressure that drives natural seepage dropped.”

To protect southern California’s beaches, one community organization, Stop Oil Seeps California, advocates lifting the state and federal moratoriums on offshore oil exploration and production.