Strike on Iran Would Roil Oil Markets, Experts Say

[Herman Munster]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502840.html?hpid=topnews

Oil traders said that even if the chances of military conflict with Iran were small, the huge run-up in oil prices that would result encourages some speculators and investment funds to bid up the price of oil, adding a premium of $3 to $15 a barrel.

"It will be chaos. . . . I can't really see it," said Abdulsamad al-Awadi, an oil trading consultant and former executive at Kuwait Petroleum. "Having been in the marketplace for almost 30 years, I can't see a scenario for it. Or precautionary measures . There are no precautionary measures."

"If war breaks out, anticipate that all hell will break loose in the oil markets," said Robin West, chairman of PFC Energy, a Washington oil consulting firm.

"If it's a clinical strike like the one that Israel carried out on the Syrian installations and no one admitted to doing it, you'd have a fierce reaction from Iran, but it would probably die down," said Leo Drollas, deputy executive director and chief economist of the Center for Global Energy Studies, a London think tank founded by former Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani. "If it were a botched job with lots of targets and civilians dying and Iranians retaliating . . . it could escalate and the price of oil could shoot up to God knows where."

[Skink]

1. W will be the greatest ever....

Amen.

[mahina]

2. Pretty sure that's not going to happen thanks to Pootie-poot.

I could never have imagined I'd be grateful to that creep. But I am. Thanks, Pootie! I see your soul. (shiver)

[Skink]

4. Wait.... What?

Don't you think W is an Alien encounter. His Dad was evil but W is you know weird.....

[Seeker7]

3. High oil prices are good for W and his friends

in the oil patch and Saudi Arabia. Lots of people think the Iraq occupation was intended to grab control of the oil. Perhaps, but keeping the Iraqi oil off the market is almost as good for them.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Gee, I wonder who benefits from that...

[arcane1]

6. in other words, "Mission Accomplished"

:evilfrown: