I am being given a hard time about NR, but here people are posting from The Intercept? SMH!
The Saudi-led oil cartel OPEC+’s announcement earlier this month that it was cutting 2 million barrels of oil per day — a move that would drive up the price of oil just a month before midterm elections — rankled Democrats in Washington.
And Biden released beaucoup barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help his fellow Dems in the Midterms.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Is At Its Lowest Level Since 1984
Forbes said:
An administration that has frequently emphasized the importance of reducing carbon emissions is trying to increase oil supplies to bring down rising oil prices — which will in turn help keep demand (and carbon emissions) high.
But even though the Biden Administration wants to address rising carbon emissions, high gasoline prices cause incumbents to lose elections. So, they try to tame gasoline prices even though it contradicts one of their key objectives of reducing carbon emissions.
SPR should be for things that threaten adequate supply (major natural disasters, wars more extensive than the Ukrainian one), not to bring down prices a bit in order to help the likes of Warnock and Fetterman.
They accused Riyadh of aligning itself with Russia, another powerful member of OPEC+, which would indeed profit off the move. “What Saudi Arabia did to help Putin continue to wage his despicable, vicious war against Ukraine will long be remembered by Americans,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
I do not think so. I think the reasons are internal to OPEC and especially Saudi Arabia. First, they want to ensure adequate oil price to balance their budget. Second, it is widely believed in petroleum circles that they have long exaggerated their reserves and their spare capacity. I think is is very likely they are incapable of sustaining a production >10 Mbbl/d for a longer period of time.
But Saudi Arabia actually pushed to cut oil production twice as much as Russian President Vladimir Putin, surprising the Russians, two Saudi sources with knowledge of the negotiations told The Intercept, suggesting that Riyadh’s motives run deeper than what top Democrats want to admit. The sources requested anonymity, fearing reprisal by the Saudi government.
Deeper yes, as I said above. Not for the reason the Intercept is claiming though, imho.
While Saudi Arabia has maintained that the move was motivated solely by economic interests, the White House and other top Democrats have said that the Saudis are pursuing a conscious alignment with Russia.
As I said, I do think the cuts are economically and petroleum-geologically motivated.
However, should KSA really seek a conscious alignment with Russia, it would be squarely on Biden/Dems who have been consciously pushing KSA away for years now. MbS has been the whipping boy of Dems for years now and they are now surprised Pikachu face that he is not willing to jeopardize his own country's economy to help Dems in the Midterms.
Democratic leaders have largely cohered around this messaging. But experts say the cut is targeted squarely at the Democratic Party — something Democratic officials have been loath to admit publicly.
This is possible, and could you blame MbS really after Dems restricting US arms sales to KSA over Yemen (which is proxy Iranian aggression)?
Biden ending US support for Saudi-led offensive in Yemen
I do not think so though. Economic considerations and ability to produce are the driving factors here.
Saudi Arabia would need oil at $80-$85 a barrel to balance budget: IMF official
Note that this is 2019 dollars. About a C-note in today's money.
“The Saudis are well aware that the price of gasoline at the pump has been a crucial political issue in the United States since 1973,” Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Intercept in an email. “They want a big increase to help the Republicans,” he added, explaining that MBS sees the GOP winning back Congress as the “first step to Trump winning in 2024 and a setback for Biden.”
You snipped this quote. I added it mostly because of the author. He has been a KSA opponent for a while.
Here he is in 2021, wanting to stop all arms sales to the Saudis.
It’s time to stop US arms sales to Saudi Arabia
Never mind that the war in Yemen was started by the IRGC proxies Ansar Allah (aka "The Houthis") whose motto is
"Allah is Greater, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam". Houthi victory in Yemen would benefit Iran far more than he claims the war is doing.
In 1973, Saudi Arabia led an oil embargo designed to punish the U.S. and other countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Then, in 1979, Saudi Arabia again led an oil embargo — this time in the wake of the Iranian revolution,
That was all almost half a century ago. Iran and KSA are enemies now, and MbS has started some rapprochement with Israel, among other reforms. Interestingly, I have not noticed this level of vitriolic hatred toward the Saudi by US left until the former started to thaw toward Israel. I wonder why ...
with the resultant high gas prices playing an arguably decisive role in Jimmy Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential race.
Of course, had the Carter administration not treated the Ayatollah as some kind of saint, he might not have taken over.
[Jimmy Carter's Chief Delegate to the UN Andrew] Young Praises Islam as ‘Vibrant’ And Calls the Ayatollah ‘a Saint’
Carter famously placed solar panels on the roof of the White House in a symbolic plea for the importance of the U.S. extricating itself from oil dependency, a gesture for which he was ridiculed.
And rightly so. It was a purely performative act. Without electric vehicles making electricity does precious little to "extricate [ourselves] from oil dependency", and 1980 vintage solar panels were, in a word, shite.
“MBS enjoyed a sweetheart relationship with Trump,” Riedel said. “Trump stood by MBS when he murdered Khashoggi and his war in Yemen which has starved tens of thousands of children; there was never any criticism of the Saudi’s human rights abuses from the Trump administration.”
Khashoggi should not have been killed. However, there is no evidence the hit was ordered by MbS. It could easily be that somebody in the Saudi security hierarchy got overly eager. Also, just because Khashoggi was a critic of the Saudi government, does not make him a liberal democrat.
Death of a dissident
As far as the war in Yemen, that has been started by the Houthis. Why are they never taken to task by the likes of Bruce Riedel?
"The notion that Saudi Arabia could intervene in domestic American politics, verboten in Washington, has been publicly acknowledged by top Saudi officials themselves."
Like who?
Left with few options, the Biden administration this week announced that it would release 15 million barrels of oil from the strategic oil reserves. The White House is also considering lifting sanctions on Venezuela to mitigate the economic harm of OPEC+’s production cut, a move that some experts have for years been calling for.
Note that the "few options" are in reference to lowering oil prices in time to help his political allies. Not the right reason to lift sanctions or even tap the SPR.
“The U.S. has helped artificially make Saudi Arabia more powerful on the energy markets by sanctioning the oil of other major producers,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, told The Intercept. “Just as [Secretary of State] Tony Blinken said that the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline was an opportunity for Europe to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Biden should turn the current crisis into an opportunity to reduce its own dependence on Riyadh by rethinking its unsuccessful energy sanctions on Venezuela and Iran.”
An Iranian wants US to lift sanctions against Iran. [Surprised Pikachu face] myself ...