[extropy-chat] PHREAK OIL: Saudi says they have more than we need...

[Mike Lorrey]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050609/D8AJUUQ82.html
Top Saudi Says Kingdom Has Plenty of Oil
 
Jun 9, 3:27 AM (ET)

By ANNE GEARAN


WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

---

On the Net:

Video from the AP interview is available at:

http://wid.ap.org/video/saudi.rm 



Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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