Like father, like son: Bush pleads for Saudi help, but world oil market has changed

[laststeamtrain]

Like father, like son: Bush pleads for Saudi help, but world oil market has changed
Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: May 16, 2008 04:15:33 PM

WASHINGTON — In April 1986, Vice President George H.W. Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia with a stern warning. Record low oil prices of $10 a barrel threatened the U.S. oil industry and U.S. national security. If prices don't rise, he warned, perhaps a U.S. tariff on imported oil would do the job.

More than 22 years later, his son George W. Bush went on a similar mission, but with the opposite goal in mind. President Bush met Friday with Saudi King Abdullah and was politely rebuffed in his request for help in bringing down world oil prices, which have raced past $125 a barrel.

Then and now, the Saudis are the only oil power with enough unused production capacity to make a difference on price if they increase supply. But the hard fact is that the world oil market has changed, and Saudi Arabia is far from the only producer holding the fate of U.S. consumers in its hands. Even if the Saudis increase production, shortfalls elsewhere, along with rising global demand, can offset their efforts — and are.

Speaking to reporters in Saudi Arabia, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said that the Saudi Oil Minister Ali al Naimi told Bush that production shortfalls aren't behind today's high oil prices. Instead, the causes include political risk, investor speculation in oil markets and insufficient refining capacity for heavy available crude oil.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/37259.html

[JuniperLea]

1. W's campaign promise was...

to "jawbone" the Saudi's... I think that translated to "blow job" in their language.

[caledesi]

6. Remember this by *?

* "Texas Gov. George W. Bush criticized the vice president - and the Clinton administration in general - for failing to sharply define American interests. `This is an administration devoid of an energy policy...I would hope the administration would convince our friends in OPEC to open the spigots."

Yeah, right.

[JuniperLea]

7. He was full of shit from day one and before...

I bet if you lined his lies up end to end they would circle the Earth.

[caledesi]

8. Yep! nt

[shain from kane]

2. "Lower those oil prices!" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

[Disturbed]

4. "insufficient refining capacity for heavy available crude oil."

What can be done about that in the US?

[shain from kane]

5. Doesn't Iraq have better grades of crude oil than Saudi Arabia?

[bullimiami]

3. 'political risk' is the key. bush scrambled up the middle east and this is one result.

its the law of unintended (or intended?) consequences.