Cheney: Saudis "Kept Their Word" On Oil Production
VP Dick Cheney may have been a little off on WMD, but oil is his thang. So when, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, Dick assured us that our friends the Saudis are producing oil as fast as they can, you've just gotta believe him. Or look for the loophole. Last week, Cheney said crude oil prices in excess of $100 a barrel reflect the reality in the marketplace. "There's just not a lot out there, and some of that excess capacity represents high sulfur crude for example, it's not very attractive and not easily marketed." That's correct; KSA oil minister Ali al-Naimi has been complaining about a lack of buyers for excess Saudi sour crude for several years. The most reasonable conclusion: the U.S. is finally desperate enough to take the second-class sticky stuff off our allies' hands. Now that's the sort of speculation that will affect the price of oil.
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"What puzzles me is that if these are so, why isn’t the present Bush/Cheney administration pushing these factoids?" Because the US, France, Russia, and China supplied Saddam with WMDs and they wanted to play this down. Best to claim no WMD than have to answer questions about the origin of the WMDs. There is plenty of sour crude on the market but it cost a lot of money to scrub out the sulfur.
Politics aside, Are there new refineries to process em oil and will diesel become cheaper? To politics, Obama 08!
Qusus: "... VP Dick Cheney...boldly predicted that Iraq had WMD’s when many were skeptical of his claims…” Actually the guy that was so certain of WMD (other than the British, French, Russians, Israelis, etc. that I mentioned before) that he told President Bush point blank that it was a 'slam dunk' or some similar phrase was a guy by the name of Tenet who had once worked for a guy by the name of Clinton. Could "Slick" have been setting up "W"? Now I'd like to see all the conspiracy theorists have a field day with that! Luther, I have not heard this angle before. Do you have any sources about various nations supplying Saddam with WMD? I did hear something about the Germans giving him certain chemicals.