General Smedley Darlington Butler, 'War
is just a racket,' 1933
MAP: World of Petroleum
TABLE: Oil and Gas Pipelines
[March 1919 . . . Each nation had come with its own agenda: the Italians to
dismember the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the French to disarm the Germans,
regain Alsace and Lorraine and the Saar region and gain their share of the
Ottoman empire (including control of Syria); the British to win the German
colonies in Africa and the South Pacific, keep control of Mesopotamia, have
protectorates in Persia and Egypt and see the end of German naval power; the
Americans to establish their dream of a League of Nations. And, in addition,
each wanted control over oil.--Janet Wallach, "
Desert Queen," Anchor Books, July 1999, p 263]
Enver Masud, Russia To Chechens: 'Get
Out or Die', The Wisdom Fund, December 7, 1999
C. J. Campbell, Peak Oil: Presentation at the Technical University of
Clausthal, December 2000
Michael T. Klare, "
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict," Owl Books, (March
13, 2002)
Enver Masud, A Clash Between Justice and
Greed, Not Islam and the West, The Wisdom Fund, September 2, 2002
VIDEO: Stephen Pelletiere, "The
Predicament Mr. Bush And The Pentagon Have Gotten US Into,"
Information Clearing House, January 29, 2003
Ahmad Quni, "Iraq oil - the target for years," Al Jazeera,
August 10, 2003
Michael Meacher, "This War on Terrorism
is Bogus," Guardian, September 6, 2003
Philip Thornton and Charles Arthur, "The axis of oil: how a plan for the world's biggest
pipeline threatens to wreak havoc," Independent, October 28,
2003
Andrew Gumbel, "Case for war confected, say top US officials,"
Independent, November 9, 2003
George Monbiot, "
Britain and the US did everything to avoid a peaceful solution in
Iraq and Afghanistan," Guardian, November 11, 2003
[The report, issued by the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said
that if Congress gave the go-ahead to pump oil from Alaska's Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, the crude could begin flowing by 2013 and reach a peak of
876,000 barrels a day by 2025.
But even at peak production, the EIA analysis said, the United States would
still have to import two-thirds of its oil, as opposed to an expected 70
percent if the refuge's oil remained off the market.--"Study: ANWR oil would have
little impact" March 16, 2004]
Sergey Borovik, "Hubbert's Peak Resources: A brief introduction to world oil
depletion" May 2, 2004
Philip Thornton, "Hidden costs of pipeline meant to safeguard West's oil supply,"
Independent, June 26, 2004
[In any event, the world production peak for conventionally reservoired
crude is unlikely to be "right around the corner" as so many other
estimators have been predicting. Our analysis shows that it will be closer
to the middle of the 21st century than to its beginning--John H. Wood, Gary
R. Long, David F. Morehouse, "Long-Term World Oil Supply
Scenarios," DOE/EIA, August 18, 2004]
M K Bhadrakumar, "India,
Pakistan and the 'peace' pipeline," Asia Times, September 15, 2004
[A groundbreaking study from the consulting company PFC Energy illuminates
our predicament. The world now uses 82 million barrels of oil a day; that's
30 billion barrels a year. To estimate future production, the study examined
historical production and discovery patterns in all the world's oil fields.
The conclusion: The world already uses about 12 billion more barrels a year
than it finds. "In almost every mature [oil] basin, the world has been
producing more than it's finding for close to 20 years," says PFC's Mike
Rodgers. That can't continue indefinitely.
The study is no doomsday exercise. Rodgers says that future discovery and
recovery rates could be better -- or worse -- than assumed. With present
rates, he expects global oil supply to peak before 2020 at about 100 million
barrels a day.-- Robert J. Samuelson, "Oil
Fantasies," Washington Post, October 6, 2004
Michael T Klare, "The oil
that drives the US military," Asia Times, October 9, 2004
[When it comes to the matter of securing Mid East oil supplies, the PNAC
made their feelings known in a letter to President Clinton in 1998 where
they urged his administration to set in motion a plan to remove Saddam
Hussein from power which would secure "our vital interests in the Gulf" that
hold "a significant portion of the world's supply of oil."
In 2000, a major PNAC
paper was released in which they reiterated their desire that the U.S.
become a dominant global force. They also acknowledged that this probably
wouldn't happen unless "some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new
Pearl Harbor" took place [page 51]. . . .
Clarke stated in his book Against All Enemies that he was shocked to
discover that on the day after the 9/11 attacks, he showed up for work at
the White House expecting to discuss al-Qaeda but instead the conversation
centered on Iraq. Clarke states he "realized with almost a sharp physical
pain that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were going to try and take advantage of
this national tragedy to promote their agenda about Iraq."
In 2002, the Wall Street Journal states the Cheney is meeting with
executives from major oil companies including his former employer,
Hallburton. Later, the Pentagon hires a subsidiary of Hallburton to
establish a plan to put out oil rig fires in Iraq should a war break out.
In February of 2003 Colin Powell
tries to drum up international support for invading Iraq based on the
Weapons of Mass Destruction argument. Concurrently, secret government
documents outline plans to privatize Iraq's oil sector. On March 20th, the
U.S. invades Iraq. . . .
U.S. oil production has peaked and is now on a
downward plunge. . . . Cheney confirmed that U.S. production had peaked in
1970 and by 2000 output was 39% below the peak.--Bill Ridley, "
Fahrenheit - Gold and Oil," OnlineInvestorsNews, October 11, 2004]
VIDEO: "The Oil Factor: Behind the War on
Terror," Free-Will Productions, October 17, 2004
[Its proven oil reserves could be depleted in 14 years--Robin Wright, "
Iran's New Alliance With China Could Cost U.S. Leverage," Washington
Post, November 17, 2004]
Richard Spencer, "Tension rises as China
scours the globe for energy," Telegraph, November 19, 2004
George Caffentzis, "Local,
Islamic and Global: The Petroleum Commons," CounterPunch, December 15, 2004
M K Bhadrakumar, "India
finds a $40bn friend in Iran," Asia Times, January 11, 2005
[By 2010 India will have 36 times more cars than it did in 1990. China will
have 90 times more, and by 2030 it will have more cars than the United
States, according to the Energy Research Institute of Beijing.--Jehangir
Pocha, "The
Axis of Oil," In These Times, January 11, 2005]
[Underlying all this is the Black Sea's growing strategic importance as an
outlet for Russian and Caspian oil - another potential source of conflict as
well as wealth.
A sort of "best pipeline" contest is now under way. Russia is exploring a
new oil route with Bulgaria and Greece that would bypass pro-western Turkey.
From Athens, at least, this looks like a terrific idea.
Another pipeline will run from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey's
Mediterranean coast, deviously circumventing poor, ostracised Armenia. Yet
another could link Bulgaria's Black Sea coast with Macedonia, Albania and
the Adriatic--Simon Tisdall, "Interests and aspirations clash in region of frozen conflicts,"
Guardian, February 8, 2005]
[Yes, our man (Yushchenko) and our system (democracy) won in Ukraine, and
once again good triumphed over bad. Yet this presentation, so characteristic
of the Western media, misses the point about what the struggle is really
about.
What is really at stake is something quite different, almost entirely
unmentioned in the Western media. It is rather more prosaic than a 'people
power' revolution. It is primarily a battle over oil transit routes from the
second largest remaining oil deposits in the world, and, more long term, a
US attempt to pre-empt Chinese designs on the key strategic space round the
southern rim of the old Soviet Union.--"One for oil and oil for
one," The Spectator (UK), March 5, 2005]
[Investing $180 billion over the next decade to eliminate oil dependence and
revitalize strategic industries can save $130 billion gross, or $70 billion
net, every year by 2025.--Amory B.Lovins, et al, "Winning the Oil
Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security," Rocky Mountain
Institue, March 1, 2005]
Jeremy Leggett, "We've been warned about 'peak oil'- the day that heralds the end of cheap
energy," Independent, April 25, 2005
Michael T. Klare, "Energo-fascism:
The Global Energy Race and Its Consequences," TomDispatch.com, January 16,
2007
[Most studies estimate that oil production will peak sometime between now
and 2040--"GAO: U.S.
needs a peak oil strategy," Energy Bulletin, March 29, 2007]
Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas