So whats going to happen- AFTER- if this idiot gets re-elected?

No. 1 oil exporter will reportedly increase production before election in effort to help Bush.
April 19, 2004: 7:09 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN) - A top Saudi official has assured President Bush that his country will increase oil production to lower gas prices before November to help the president's re-election prospects, according to a broadcast report Sunday.

Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, discussing his new book on the run-up to the Iraq war on CBS' '60 Minutes,' said Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States and a long-time friend of the Bush family, has given the pledge that "certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly."

Earlier this month, the Saudi ambassador publicly said his country wants to stabilize world oil prices because of the effect a price spike might have on economies around the world, including Saudi Arabia. He did not link the effort to the U.S. election.

Record-high gas prices have become an issue in the presidential race between Bush and the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry.

Kerry has criticized Bush for not doing more to bring high prices under control, while the Bush campaign has run ads noting that Kerry once supported a 50-cent per gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax, which would have meant even higher prices.

Amid concerns that plans by OPEC to cut oil production could raise prices even further, Prince Bandar went to the White House April 1 to meet with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and to deliver a message to Bush from Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto Saudi ruler.

Afterward, he told reporters that Saudi Arabia is committed to heading off any shortages in the world energy market.

"We will not allow shortages in the market because that will hurt the world economy," he said. "Saudi Arabia does not live on the moon. When the world economy gets hurt, we get hurt also."

He also said that the president and the crown prince "have been in touch on this subject for a while now."

"Both leaders feel strongly that higher energy prices have a negative impact on the world economy and on the recovery of the world economy," Prince Bandar said. "We will not allow shortage of the markets of oil in the market to increase the prices."

The ambassador said Saudi Arabia would like to see the price of oil, which now tops $33 a barrel, to be between $22 and $28 a barrel.

OPEC has said it plans to cut production by as much as 1 million barrels per day in April, which would further increase prices. However, Saudi Arabia, as OPEC's most influential member and largest producer, could thwart those plans.

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I've never felt alone... 'Till I met you

WTF IS THIS!?!!??


This fucking Saudi leadership needs to be hung and dragged into the streets!!!

I'm not bitching because they want to help Bush, but because they're holding back production for no reasons.

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quote:

Originally posted by malek WTF IS THIS!?!!?? This fucking Saudi leadership needs to be hung and dragged into the streets!!! I'm not bitching because they want to help Bush, but because they're holding back production for no reasons.

money, money, and more MONEY

i bet bush is paying them off too

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And the best part is...Saudi Arabia are one of the biggest supporters of al-Qaida!!!!

i for one think it's good with high gas prices

quote:

Originally posted by St_Andrew i for one think it's good with high gas prices

Historically, and adjusted economically, prices aren't even that high. It's just a bunch of ignorant Americans bitching about something they saw on tv. Stupid media. Stupid Americans.

quote:

Originally posted by ::TranceVanDyk:: i bet bush is paying them off too

Unlikely. While the Saudis take a piss, they earn more interest on their money than Bush is worth.

It's yet another example of Democrats bitching about a problem, and standing in the way of a solution. Kerry gives whole speeches on gas prices - perhaps he should give a speech on why he doesn't support more domestic drilling, i.e. ANWR, and has blocked measures to increase existing domestic production.

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FLUSHED THE JOHNS!

quote:

Originally posted by NeoPhono Historically, and adjusted economically, prices aren't even that high. It's just a bunch of ignorant Americans bitching about something they saw on tv. Stupid media. Stupid Americans.

you fucking idiot-
you must be 15 and dont own a car.
Gas prices here are $2.30/g

You dont think that is high?

WHY would gas in one part of the country be $1.60 and in cali be that much higher?

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I've never felt alone... 'Till I met you

quote:

Originally posted by xKaoSx you fucking idiot- you must be 15 and dont own a car. Gas prices here are $2.30/g You dont think that is high? WHY would gas in one part of the country be $1.60 and in cali be that much higher?

Because California has implemented new environmental laws that include new additives that burn gasoline better during the summer driving months. Furthermore state legislatures impose various forms of taxes themselves on gasoline to build state revenues. Cali is particularly bad with this.

I thought Californians wanted to help their environment?

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Retro ...

quote:

Originally posted by xKaoSx you fucking idiot- you must be 15 and dont own a car. Gas prices here are $2.30/g You dont think that is high? WHY would gas in one part of the country be $1.60 and in cali be that much higher?

I posted an article about this earlier. If you look at inflation and average income in relation to gas prices, they are no where near the record high. Thanks for your mature response.

To signifigantly affect our gas prices now would reqire a very overt increase in production combined with a very overt derease in price per barrel crude. This being done by one orginization that we only recieve 14% of our gross import from. The Sauds being 1/6th of that orginization but with a slight chokehold.(54% of oil used in this country is imported that means a 1/4 of that gross is from OPEC.) This combined with the fact that China, the second largest consumer and soon to become the largest , is competing for the same oil including everyone else they export to would have to increase production and lower their prices thus loosing potential billions to affect our election? Then the entire domestic importing pigs (Shell Exxon/Mobile)would be involved. The guys that really control our end user prices.

seems like a stretch. but its a crazy world.

...and don't the Saudi's do this every election year?

I say blame your state government and the uber rich gas conglomerates for your prices at the pump.

And to say Bush is "paying the Saudi's off" is a pretty reckless statement. Paying them off for what? Who? Why? How?

Last edited by Q5echo on Apr-20-2004 at 08:00

Why are Americans having such a cry over their gas prices???
They've got some of the cheapest petrol in the world. I think it's only Venezuela, and maybe another country or two, who are paying less for petrol.
In Melbourne we're paying the equivalent of about US$2.78 per gallon of petrol.. I mean, we're even kicking up a stink about it here too..
I feel sorry for the British, who pay something around US$5 for the gallon of petrol. Sure they drive much less than we would, but still, get over it.

Refering back to NeoPhono's comment:

quote:

Historically, and adjusted economically, prices aren't even that high. It's just a bunch of ignorant Americans bitching about something they saw on tv. Stupid media. Stupid Americans.

This comment has some truth to it... The reason why petrol is as expensive as it is, is simply because it's heavily taxed (this is because demand for petrol is inelastic, therefore a favourable good for governments to tax). In real terms, the price of petrol has fallen over the last 20 years. Dont believe me? This site should help:
http://www.shell.com.au/petrolpricing/index_vic.html

The fact that the price of petrol, in real terms, has fallen over the last 20 years is quite interesting. In economic terms, the marginal cost of extracting and processing an exhaustable resource becomes more and more expensive over time (simply because there's less and less of it in the ground (ie, it becomes harder to pump it out of the ground etc etc)). We see this, yet we still have cheaper petrol than what we had 20 years ago?? weird

But yeah, we'll never again see the days when petrol was at half the price that it's at now. Not with China growing into an economic powerhouse.. China will eventually blow out the demand for crude oil, and in turn will drive the price of crude oil, and petrol, ever higher.

Stop hitting the Saudi's about expensive petrol. It's not their fault that they own a monopoly on the worlds oil prices.. I mean, if you were in their position you'd capitalise on it too

(btw, in the link i provided click on "trends" for the explanation)

Last edited by Dupz on Apr-20-2004 at 09:07