Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 13 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
General News    H3'ed 6/18/08

Oil Crisis. Oh, really? They are hiding oil offshore.

Message Linn Cohen-Cole
6.18.08 Wednesday about 4:26pm
What do we know?
We know that oil is a limited resource.  
We know that demand for it is climbing because of China and India.  
We know that we went into Iraq for oil and that supplies there have been threatened by fighting.
We know that Bush is an oil man.
We know that Exxon is now making the largest profits in the history of the world - billions.
We know that because there is the so-called oil "crisis," some Congress people want a windfall profits tax.
We know that because there is the so-called oil "crisis," Exxon and the other oil companies are pushing for  a tax BREAK so they will have some "incentive" to explore for oil.
We know that because of the so-called oil "crisis," the president and Exxon and others are pushing to lift bans  on drilling in ANWAR and off the coast of the US.
We know that because of the so-called oil "crisis," both the coal and nuclear industries, each known for large environmental threats, are suddenly saying "We're BAAAACK."
We know that Bush is supposed to leave office shortly and Exxon and other corporations have had a field day while he has been "in charge." 
We know the price of oil has climbed dramatically, very recently, and with it, the price of gas.
We know our economy is being massively negatively impacted by the rise in the price of oil, threatening an already weak economy, here.
We know that oil is being moved off shore and hidden.
We know that ...  wait, wait, wait - what was that last one?  
We know that oil is being moved off shore and hidden.
Who says?  
Oil Movements.  A weekly report on the movement of oil tankers.  Wall Street Journal (October 16 2000) says:  "These aren't the musings of some academic. Mr. Mason publishes a weekly report, Oil Movements, that heavily influences the projections  of petroleum experts and, ultimately, affects the price of petroleum
itself."
Reuters, Dow Jones and Bloomberg cite it and the leading oil industry publications use it as a data source, as does the OPEC secretariat.
Ed Wallace, reporting in the Fort Worth, Texas Star Telegram, http://www.star-telegram.com/ed_wallace/story/651928.html

"While researching my third article for BusinessWeek online about the world’s oil situation in 2008, I asked for the most current report from Oil Movements. Because the oil industry is not transparent, Oil Movements tracks every tanker at sea, from both OPEC and non-OPEC oil countries, along with their cargoes’ final destinations. Anne O’Shea responded immediately to my request with their report dated May 8, 2008."

Mr. Wallace says that all classes of oil shipments, except one, have gone up since a year ago, including Middle East oil in transit and Non-OPEC oil in Transit."  

Which class has gone down?  The 4-Week Changes in Westbound Oil at Sea.

Mr. Wallace points out that "shipments of oil headed west have shown serious declines during the month of April, down 800,000 barrels per day in the week before the publication of the report."  He goes on to give us the first line from under the Westbound Oil shipments chart: "In the west, a big share of any [oil] stock building done this year has happened offshore, out of sight."

Clearly impressed himself, he goes on, 

"Oil Movements, the unimpeachable source for finding the real world situation on oil transits, is saying that oil is being hidden offshore, not declared in inventories? Yes, that is exactly what they are saying.

"That same week our refineries cut their production runs back to 85 percent, down from 89 percent a year ago, to trim more gasoline out of our stock reserves, to increase their profits per gallon."

What is going on?  Hiding oil to drive up the price?  To get tax breaks despite mammoth profits?  To get Congress to open up ANWAR and the off-shore drilling?  

Who ever heard of such a thing?

Well ... we have.

Remember Enron?  

Mr. Wallace sure does:  "Enron ... manipulat[ed] the California energy market, even forcing rolling blackouts across the northern part of their state apparently just for effect – to support their claim that there just wasn’t enough electricity to go around. Again, we now know that claim was untrue. It was Enron shutting down certain power generation plants, while placing bets on their unregulated energy futures market. The net cost to California consumers was almost $8 billion."

What did we do about it?

There were Congressional hearings in 2001, during which included "blasting certain Wall Street executives for using the media to sell the public on stocks in order to bid up the price – so their firm could divest of its shares without taking a beating. Meanwhile, other trusted advisors pushed stocks that were fundamentally worthless, because their affiliated banks had large loan agreements with those companies."

We know that is called cheating.  Also, stealing.  

We know that was stealing from us.

We know that kind of manipulation of fuel/energy only happened once in this country.

We do?  What about Amaranth Advisors, a hedge fund?  

We don't know about that.  

Wallace - fast becoming my favorite guy, does.  He said Amaranth Advisors were "literally ... cornering the market on natural gas futures, to make it appear that there was a shortage of natural gas, when the Commodities Futures Trading Commission told Amaranth to liquidate its position on the NYMEX because its bidding had already moved natural gas prices far beyond the reasonable limits of supply and demand."

Because once Amaranth had to stop doing what it was doing with natural gas futures contracts, they went out and found a new cookie jar.  It got out of NYMEX and government regulations by placing its "bets" in ICE - ICE, short for Intercontinental Exchange –and what Wallace calls the "dark futures lookalike market."  Using ICE, Amaranth drove the nature gas futures up to $850 per MBtu.

I don't know what a MBtu is, but "[a]s the Senate investigation into the manipulation of the energy markets showed, "Amaranth – the day before they failed, natural gas was about $8.50; the day after it failed, it went to $4.46 MBtu."   That's dropping by half.  Amaranth had done things that doubled prices. 

"That’s right, one major hedge fund managed to double the price of natural gas simply by loading up on futures contracts; when the government told them their bets were unwarranted, they simply moved their monies to a futures exchange that was unregulated."

Unregulated.

Well, all you people who followed Reagan like ducklings and voted for "de-regulation," thanks a lot.

We know - now - it's called "disaster for consumers."

Mr. Wallace, a great guy if ever there was one, says:  "Sadly, like oil today, when this was happening we were being told that natural gas supplies were tight worldwide. That statement simply wasn’t true."  [My emphasis.]

We know we have seen "untrue" before.  

We know we have an oilman in the White House who has proved to have very few limits on what he will say.  

We know he has oil friends.

We know they are probably worried about having to leave the great oil party he has thrown while in office.  

We know they are raking it right now, and using the "crisis" to take everything they can get their hands on in this country, except the wallpaper.

We know if they aren't stopped, our society and our economy will be crashing to pieces behind them as they walk away with the booty.

We know oil is hidden offshore and refineries have cut back production.

We know this is driving gas up, terrifying the country, destabilizing economy, setting up a crisis so the oil companies can push for tax breaks and drilling anywhere they fantasize, and for dirty energy industries to descend like reawakened Visigoths.

Do we know whether the White House is involved?  If so, is this the 36th article? 

I don't know what you know, but I know Ed Wallace is my hero..

Rate It | View Ratings

Linn Cohen-Cole Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Met libertarian and conservative farmers and learned an incredible amount about farming and nature and science, as well as about government violations against them and against us all. The other side of the fence is nothing like what we've been (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Monsanto's dream bill, HR 875

Goodbye farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside stands

Monsanto Investigator in Illinois Laughs They Are Doing 'Rural Cleansing'

Monsanto bills being rushed through Congress, set to destroy organic farming.

A solemn walk through HR 875

Monsanto and Hillary Clinton's redemptive first act as Secretary of State

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend