I found a couple of articles in recent days rather interesting when mashed up. One article was published in the Wall Street Journal last week – sorry, but I have lost the paper copy and cannot reference it directly. The article talked about the difference in tone of muti-national oil executives when they are talking to investors (gleeful about smashing all profit records for individual corporations) and to the US Congress (unapologetic and concerned about the impacts of continued political calls for energy independence). The second article is linked to this entry and it quotes the US Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman, as follows:
Bodman said suppliers could count on a healthy U.S. import market for some time to come, adding that demand reduction measures, such as use of nuclear power and cellulose-based ethanol, had a long horizon.
“We are looking out 20 years and we are looking at substantial growth in demand for imported oil in our country and we as anybody would like to identify ways of diversifying sources of (energy) if we can do it,” he said.
“There is no doubt our country will be a very good market for (imports of) oil and natural gas for some time to come,” Bodman said. “It should not be a concern for producers.”
Now I know where my government really stands in the balance between the need for national security, the prosperity of its people and the prosperity of oil exporters.
