A Giant Among Giants - By Ken Silverstein. When Glencore, the world's biggest commodities brokerage firm, went public in May 2011, the initial public offering (IPO) on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges made headlines for weeks in the Financial Times and the trade-industry press, which devoted endless columns to the company's astonishing valuation of nearly $60 billion -- higher than Boeing or Ford Motor Co.
The massive new wealth turned nearly 500 employees into overnight multimillionaires and made billionaires of at least five senior executives, including CEO Ivan Glasenberg. "We are not going to change the way we operate," vowed Glasenberg, who had started as a lowly coal trader for the Swiss firm nearly three decades earlier and, with the IPO, immediately became one of Europe's richest men. "Being public will have absolutely no effect on the business.
" And what a business it is. But to experts, there's simply no other way for a company like Glencore to thrive. Rich has admitted that the old Glencore paid bribes. The significance of OPEC announcements. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) today announced that its members could not reach an agreement to change OPEC’s production quotas.
How significant is that announcement? In my opinion, not very. Forbes provides these details: Analysts thought the 12-member group would boost production in an effort to cool off oil prices and take some pressure off the world economy…. Instead of raising production the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ended a contentious meeting in Vienna without changing quotas for its members.
If OPEC were functioning as a traditional cartel, what would emerge from these meetings would be agreements on production quotas to which each country was going to adhere. Saudi Arabia Puts Efforts Into Tapping Heavy-Oil Deposits. Daniel Yergin: What's Wrong With Peak Oil. Past Peak Oil - Why Time Is Now Short. Oil & Gas. This industry, which includes multinational and independent oil and gas producers and refiners, natural gas pipeline companies, gasoline service stations and fuel oil dealers, has long enjoyed a history of strong influence in Washington.
Individuals and political action committees affiliated with oil and gas companies have donated $238.7 million to candidates and parties since the 1990 election cycle, 75 percent of which has gone to Republicans. Though former oilmen George W. Bush and Dick Cheney occupied the White House for eight years, the oil and gas industry could not win support for repealing bans on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, Congress voted in 2008 to lift a ban on offshore drilling. These companies are also wary of cap-and-trade climate change legislation, such as the measure Democratic President Barack Obama supports. Oil drilling: Lots of lobbying, no legislation - Gulf Oil Spill 2010. Oil Politics: A Modern History of Petroleum. Book Description Publication Date: 5 Jan 2010.
The Paradox of Plenty : Terry Lynn Karl. Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States. Ever since the dust settled after Desert Storm, an assessment of how the oil monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula are faring has been needed.
This clear and concise account is the best analysis to date. The author challenges the conventional view of unchanging traditional political systems rooted in tribalism and religion. Oil wealth has brought great change to each of these states, but not quite in the way that some theorists of rentier states assumed. The welfare state that makes few demands on its citizens has not produced passivity and consent, particularly when oil revenues are in decline. Scarce Whales. A Review of "Oil 101" by Morgan Downey. Chris Cook: The Oil End Game. By Chris Cook, former compliance and market supervision director of the International Petroleum Exchange.
Cross posted from Asia Times. Crude oil and gasoline prices. Crude oil prices this week reached their highest level since last April.
What will that mean for U.S. consumers at the gas pump? The first question to be clear on is which crude oil price we’re talking about. Two of the popular benchmarks are West Texas Intermediate, traded in Oklahoma, and North Sea Brent. Historically these two prices were quite close, and it didn’t matter which one you referenced. But due to a lack of adequate transportation infrastructure in the United States, the two prices have diverged significantly over the last year.
My rule of thumb has been that for every $1 increase in the price of a barrel of crude oil, U.S. consumers are likely to pay 2-1/2 more cents for a gallon of gasoline. Eating Fossil Fuels. Taliban - Rashid, Ahmed. Ahmed Rashid Out of Print. A Number 1 New York Times Bestseller USA Today Best-Selling Book Chosen as an "Outstanding" title in the 2000 Association of American University Presses (AAUP) University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries. Understanding the Correlation between Oil Prices and the Falling Dollar. Interviewee: Brad W.
Setser, Fellow for Geoeconomics, Council on Foreign RelationsInterviewer: Lee Hudson Teslik, Associate Editor, CFR.org June 18, 2008. Michael Klare, Energy Wars 2012. Big Oil and Canada thwarted U.S. carbon standards - Oil Industry. When President Barack Obama decided in early November to delay a decision on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline until after the next election, America’s environmental movement celebrated one of its biggest victories in recent memory.
And no doubt the news came as a blow to Alberta’s tar sands industry, and to Canada’s oft-stated dream of becoming the next global energy superpower. But behind activists’ jubilation lurked a somber reality, an untold story with much wider implications. The broader fight to reform Alberta’s tar sands, the one which actually stood a chance of breaking America’s addiction to the continent’s most polluting road fuel, has been quietly abandoned over the past several years. For that we can thank the planet’s richest oil companies and their Canadian government allies, who’ve together waged a stealthy war against President Obama’s climate change ambitions.