BUSH GETS BUPKIS FROM THE SAUDIS in terms of increased production.
I’m not surprised. I’m actually not sure they can increase their production all that much at the moment, as I suspect they’ve been overstating their capacity all along. Also, alas, they seem to have caught on to the Malcolm S. Forbes plan. Guess I shouldn’t have blogged it . . . .:
One clue comes from the March bulletin of OAPEC, the Arab sub-group of the OPEC producers’ cartel. It notes sourly that President Bush is aiming to reduce US dependency on oil imports “particularly from the Middle Eastâ€, by 75pc by the year 2025.
“This has created some ambiguity in the US position on the future of oil consumption,” it said. Touchee.
King Abdullah’s retort to the Bush speech was to announce that Saudi Arabia would stop developing big projects after the Khurais field comes on stream in next year with 1.2m bpd, leaving the country’s oil in the ground for future generations.
Were America the imperial power that its critics claim, of course, we’d have simply seized the oil after 9/11 — it would have been easier than invading Iraq — killed a bunch of Saudis and gone our way. Instead, however, we probably won’t do much. If we were as serious as we say we are about energy, we’d start developing domestic sources. But we can’t even get shale oil past Congress.
UPDATE: Ouch.