| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
09 Jun 2005 11:35:08 AM |
| Object: |
Top Saudi Says Kingdom Has Plenty of Oil |
Top Saudi Says Kingdom Has Plenty of Oil
By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 9, 2005; 11:32 AM
WASHINGTON -- Saudi Arabia has plenty of oil _ more than the world is
likely to need _ along with an increasing ability to refine crude oil
into gasoline and other products before selling it overseas, a top
Saudi official says.
"The world is more likely to run out of uses for oil than Saudi Arabia
is going to run out of oil," Adel al-Jubeir, top foreign policy
adviser for Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, said
Wednesday.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Al-Jubeir said
relations between his nation and the Bush administration were strong
but "the environment in which the relationship operates ... still
leaves a lot to be desired."
He denied his country has any nuclear weapons ambitions, despite
international concerns about a Saudi request to lower international
scrutiny of its lone nuclear reactor.
He said he was "bullish" about the Saudi economy, which although based
on the country's vast oil reserves has also diversified to include a
galloping stock market.
Al-Jubeir dismissed speculation, including in a recent book, that the
country was hiding the true picture of its oil reserves and that it
may have far less than publicly assumed. He said Saudi Arabia has
proven reserves of 261 billion barrels, and with the arrival of newer
technology could extract an additional 100 billion to 200 billion
barrels.
"We will be producing oil for a very long time," al-Jubeir said.
Saudi Arabia now pumps 9.5 million barrels of oil daily, with the
capacity to produce 11 million barrels a day. The country has pledged
to increase daily production to 12.5 million barrels by 2009, and the
nation's oil minister said last month the level of 12.5 million to 15
million barrels daily could be sustained for up to 50 years.
High oil prices benefit the Saudi economy in the short run, but
al-Jubeir said his nation wants a stable price that won't hurt
consumers so much that they reduce their energy demands.
The problem for both the Saudis and the United States is what happens
after the oil is pumped.
"If we send more oil to the United States and you can't refine it,
it's not going to become gasoline," al-Jubeir said. The United States
has not built a refinery since the 1970s, and other markets have
similarly outmoded or limited refining capacity. Environmental
concerns and local opposition make it unlikely new U.S. refineries can
be built quickly, even with the current gas price crunch.
Saudi Arabia has partly stepped into the breach, with new refineries
being built inside the kingdom as well as in China and soon in India,
al-Jubeir said.
The country has also invested in gasoline stations, part of a strategy
of "going downstream" from oil production to distribution, al-Jubeir
said.
"We continue to do it, and we have one of the largest refining and
distribution systems in the world," he said.
Ordinary Saudis remain deeply distrustful of the United States in the
aftermath of the Iraq invasion and revelations about mistreatment of
Muslim prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a range of
complaints about conditions at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, al-Jubeir said.
"Why do they hate you? They don't hate you, they just don't like your
policies."
Al-Jubeir said the Saudi regime takes no umbrage at U.S. efforts to
spread democracy in the Middle East. President Bush and Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice have made democratic expansion a centerpiece of
Bush's second term foreign policy.
"We believe that the idea of spreading freedom and democracy is a
noble one," but change must come on terms each country can accept,
al-Jubeir said.
--
A general rule: if enough people predict something, it
wonąt happen. -- J. G. Ballard
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net
.
|
|
| User: "Docky Wocky" |
|
| Title: Re: Top Saudi Says Kingdom Has Plenty of Oil |
09 Jun 2005 12:31:40 PM |
|
|
That Al-Jubeir really is a weasel, ain't he?
If you saw him hanging around a grade school, you'de call the cops.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Captain Compassion" |
|
| Title: Re: Top Saudi Says Kingdom Has Plenty of Oil |
09 Jun 2005 02:05:00 PM |
|
|
On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 17:31:40 GMT, "Docky Wocky" <mrchuck@lst.net>
wrote:
That Al-Jubeir really is a weasel, ain't he?
If you saw him hanging around a grade school, you'de call the cops.
The goal of this guy is to assure that oil prices are high enough to
assure high profits for SA but not high enough to decrease consumption
or make other energy sources economically viable.
--
A general rule: if enough people predict something, it
wonąt happen. -- J. G. Ballard
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net
.
|
|
|
| User: "Bill Bonde by a commodius vicus of recirculation" |
|
| Title: Re: Top Saudi Says Kingdom Has Plenty of Oil |
09 Jun 2005 02:28:42 PM |
|
|
Captain Compassion wrote:
On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 17:31:40 GMT, "Docky Wocky" <mrchuck@lst.net>
wrote:
That Al-Jubeir really is a weasel, ain't he?
If you saw him hanging around a grade school, you'de call the cops.
The goal of this guy is to assure that oil prices are high enough to
assure high profits for SA but not high enough to decrease consumption
or make other energy sources economically viable.
Other sources are economically viable, just not the sort of sources that
Liberals like, that is wind, solar and the other dirty power
possibilities. Clean power, from hydro, nuclear, gas, coal, geothermal
and the like are usually attacked by Liberals as a source of evil but
any sane person would conclude that we need to choose from these sources
if we are going to reduce our dependancy on imported oil.
--
"What do you value in your bulldogs? Gripping, is it not? It's their
nature? It's why you breed them? It's so with men. I will not give in
because I oppose it. Not my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my
appetites, but *I* do. Is there in the midst of all this muscle no
single sinew that serves no appetite of Norfolk's but is just Norfolk?
Give that some exercise. Because, as you stand, you'll go before your
Maker ill-conditioned. He'll think that somewhere along your pedigree, a
***** got over the wall."
-+Paul Scofield, "A Man For All Seasons"
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
