Venezuela considers cutting OPEC quota

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/18/content_2589886.htm

CARACAS, Feb. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Venezuela considers to propose a cut in the production level of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) if pricing fell after the end of winter, said a senior government official on Thursday.

Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez said as cited by local daily El Universal, that in the face of the drop in pricing "we would propose and support a production cut."

Ramirez also ruled out that Venezuela, the world's fifth largest crude exporter, has a long-term plan to abandon the US petroleum market, which receives most of its daily production.

more

[jmcgowanjm]

1. Don't worry Venezuela, the US has longrange plans for you.

US prepares invasion of Venezuela

http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/18347.php

Oil executives say they have no choice but to try alternatives
to drilling because there is not much more crude to be found
in their current fields.

``We're damn close'' to the peak in conventional oil
production, Boone Pickens, who oversees more than $1
billion in energy-related investments at his Dallas hedge
fund firm, said in an interview in New York Feb. 16. ``I think
we're there.'' Suncor Energy Inc., the world's second-
biggest oil-sands miner, is his largest
holding.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=aZ6yVeyLhzkE&refer=uk

America can tell itself whatever it wants to hear, but history
and destiny have other plans for us. That plan includes a lot
of trouble with the energy needed to run the beloved drive-
in utopia. No amount of cheerleading for that way of life will
bring back the depleted oil fields of Texas or the tapped-out
gas wells of Oklahoma, or buy us the friendship of the
people around the Persian Gulf who own two-thirds of
the world's remaining oil. Reality's message to us doesn't
jibe with Kotkin's strange victory lap. Reality's message is
"Tilt! Game over!"

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary12.html

[durablend]

2. So the "four more wars" plan is in motion?

Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and N. Korea?

[jmcgowanjm]

3. Remember this heads up from the NYT

After the most recent events in Palestine and Venezuela,
Aziz explained, it must be clear to the entire world
that Washington's belligerent attitude toward Iraq and Iran
is based "neither on human rights nor on democracy," but
is aimed at the "total control of the oil reserves of the Gulf
states." (Neues Deutschland, April 26)

Aziz added that it would be impossible for the United States
to use anti-Baghdad forces in the Kurdish northern region or
the Shiite southern region to foster a revolt and overthrow
the central Iraqi government as was done in Afghanistan.
Both the Shiites and the Kurds "feel too much like Iraqis" to
let that happen, said Aziz.

Apparently CIA officials agree with this assessment and
have told the Bush administration that only an invasion
would eliminate the Saddam Hussein
government.

http://www.iacenter.org/iraq_leakplans.htm

Responding to a recent report in British daily The
Guardian about US forces fortifying positions in northern Iraq
in anticipation of ethnic conflict or possible Turkish
intervention, the US Embassy in Ankara said yesterday that
the deployment of American forces in Iraq is determined by
the needs of the mission.

"Any suggestion that any US military activity in northern Iraq
is directed against Turkey, a longstanding ally and NATO
partner, is false," said the statement. "Speculation over
Turkish military intervention in northern Iraq is
irresponsible . . . Turkey knows this well, and we have no
reason to think that Turkey would undertake such
action."

http://www.dunyagazetesi.com.tr/news_display.asp?upsale_id=208691&dept_id=87