Iran, Venezuela vow to 'neutralise' oil price problem

[Zorro]

Source: AFP

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, flanked by Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro,vowed Saturday to "neutralise" the threat posed to both countries by plummeting oil prices, in a barely veiled broadside at Saudi Arabia.

OPEC members Iran and Venezuela are reeling from a slide in the cost of crude to around $50 per barrel from $100 just six months ago, a precipitous fall that is straining their budgets.

Losses accelerated after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel, of which Iran and Venezuela are founders, chose late last year not to cut output despite lower prices and oversupply.

Rouhani, his oil minister and other top officials in Tehran have criticised fellow OPEC member Saudi Arabia for not supporting steps to support higher crude prices.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-venezuela-vow-neutralise-oil-price-problem-135329358.html

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Sounds like a threat to me.

[Fred Sanders]

1. Threat? Of what?

[elias49]

2. I imagine the 'threat' to their respective economies. nt

[Fred Sanders]

3. By doing what, and how is a threat to try and raise oil prices a "threat"? Isn't that what oil barons

all over the world also want?

The corporate media meme of lower energy prices being bad for the mass energy consuming
American economy or any non-petro producing and dependent economy is laughably desperate.

Venezuela, Iran...apparently they are also allies of oil barons....no threat to them.

[cheapdate]

4. Exactly. I vow to rule the world as a benign dictator.

[GGJohn]

5. Venezuela's economy was already in the toilet before the price drop in crude oil.

But of course, Maduro has to blame someone, can't blame him and his corrupt govt.

[elias49]

6. Nor can some blame US meddling in South American affairs of state and trade.

Or Central America and 50 years of efforts to destroy the Cuban economy.

[GGJohn]

7. Except that the US had nothing to do with Venezuela's economy failing,

the govt did that all on their little lonesome self.

[elias49]

9. Agree to disagree. nt

[GGJohn]

10. Ok. eom

[NickB79]

13. In the toilet, and no toilet paper either!

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/21/world/americas/venezuela-toilet-paper/

[GGJohn]

14. I hear banana tree leaves are a great substitute.

[Marthe48]

8. U.S. threatens or worse if oil prices are high

Other nations threaten if the prices go down... wonder if the world will ever see wars over renewables?

[HoosierCowboy]

11. Get ready...

...for the next oil war in the Middle East. It would only take a small Iranian force about two days to overrun most of the oilfields in question.

[hack89]

12. Two U.S. combat brigades in Kuwait,

a Marine expeditionary group afloat in the gulf, the entire 5th Fleet plus a shit ton of Air Force combat aircraft in the region will have a say in the matter, I would suspect.

[msanthrope]

16. Let's not brings facts into this. This is a DU thread about Venezuela, after all. nt

[Lurks Often]

15. So what are they going to do, whine and say mean things about everybody?

Venezuela has minimal ability to project military, economic or diplomatic pressures outside of it's borders.

Iran has a marginal ability to project conventional military power beyond it's own borders, I'm not sure they could take the combined forces of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the U.A.E on their own, much less the United States. I'll note that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the U.A.E have all made significant upgrades to their militarize since 1991.

[Adrahil]

17. Why is Venezuela participating in a Cartel, the most capitalist of capitalist

things?

[Bacchus4.0]

18. because oil is all they got

They don't produce much of anything else and must import the majority of basic needs items like food.

[Adrahil]

19. Many oil producing nations are not in OPEC. n/t

[Bacchus4.0]

20. don't know. maybe time to reconsider. maybe they think they have more influence on prices nt

[McCamy Taylor]

21. A threat to what? The massively corrupt Saud family? Bring it on.

The Sauds are Halliburton/Ma Belle/ Standard Oil plus the Russian Czars rolled into one huge mega-death complex of greed. Do not be fooled. Saudi Arabia wants all competitors out of oil so that they can raise prices sky high again. They are looking for a monopoly.