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The Forum > Article Comments > Saudis planning for a war of attrition in Europe with Russia's oil industry > Comments

Saudis planning for a war of attrition in Europe with Russia's oil industry : Comments

By Nicholas Cunningham, published 20/11/2015

Russia's economy has been battered by the collapse in crude prices, compounded by the screws of western sanctions. The Russian economy could shrink by 3.2 percent this year.

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The Saudis winning oil market share over Russia is good news. The Saudi are increasingly dependent on Western armed forces to defend Saudi Arabia from the Shiites in Iraq and Iran. This makes Saudi Arabia a friend of the West - exactly what Russia is not.

Russia has used its oil and gas supplies to Europe (especially Ukraine) as a defence/foreign policy weapon. Russia has threatened to curtail oil and/or gas supplies to Europe when Putin is displeased.

Russia has also used high or normal oil prices to boost revenue-tax funded improvements in its Armed Forces.

These Russian/Putin Armed Forces are encroaching (Special Forces, tanks and all) in the Ukraine and Russia has been threatening the small Baltic States.

Authoritarian Putin Russia's self-inflicted economic doldrums are a good news story for Western democracies.

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Friday, 20 November 2015 12:36:22 PM
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plantagenet, i hear where you are coming from, but what is happening in Ukrainia is an exact repeat of the Cuban Missile crisis, in reverse with NATO getting to close to Russia's borders. We could end this in 30 seconds by asking Russia to join NATO & the EU as well. When China begins expanding do you want Russia on our side or China's side?
Posted by imacentristmoderate, Friday, 20 November 2015 2:10:16 PM
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Hi ima..........

Sounds a goer. When do we start?

Yes it is almost certain that Putin would love to join the American dominated NATO alliance.

Equally ex-Warsaw Pact countries like Poland, the Czechs, the 3 Baltic States and Hungarians would love to have the Russians breathing down there necks again - and cracking the whip.

A little detail or 2:

NATO–Russian relations, relations between the NATO military alliance and the Russian Federation were established in 1991. In 1994 Russia joined the Partnership for Peace programme. During the 1990s, the two sides signed several important agreements on cooperation.

The Russia–NATO council was set up in 2002, for handling security issues and joint projects. Cooperation between Russia and NATO now develops in several main sectors: fighting terrorism, military cooperation, cooperation on Afghanistan (including transportation by Russia of non-military International Security Assistance Force freight (see NATO logistics in the Afghan War), and fighting the local drug production), industrial cooperation, non-proliferation, and others.

On 1 April 2014, NATO unilaterally decided to suspend practical co-operation with the Russian Federation, in response to the Ukraine crisis.

Cheers
Posted by plantagenet, Friday, 20 November 2015 5:31:42 PM
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The Ukraine crisis was unequivocallyformulated by one Victoria Nuland of the good 'ol US of A Pete, not that you would ever consider an alternate reality.

Putin is the only one destroying terrorists in Syria, they have done more in 6 weeks than the coalition has managed in the past 3 years, how odd, don't you think?

Saudi oil production is not only aimed at undermining Russian production it is destroying US unconventional production which will virtually collapse over the next 12 months.

We are at peak debt, peak oil storage and peak stupidity when it comes to western foreign policy in the Middle East,

Next you will tell me Pete, you believe the Paris attacks were orchestrated by ISIS and not a "false-flag" orchestrated by the west to close European borders from the growing wave of refugees caused by the western interference in Syria, or am I a conspiracy theorist as you like to infer people are when the put forward a perfectly rational alternate view.

Give me a break,
Posted by Geoff of Perth, Friday, 20 November 2015 8:25:31 PM
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All good and that's before the 80 trillion barrels of Edmonton crude comes on line thanks to technological innovation that makes it viable even in a hugely depressed market?

Don't worry Nicolas, someone is still making money out of oil; namely the refiners, who can and do still act as a cartel? To charge as much as a hugely price gouged market can bear?

Our government could end this massive price gouge, if only they didn't benefit by many billions in excise, which would be severely diminished by prices that fairly represented the real cost (3-4 cents a barrel) of refining crude oil!

Given the Saudis are now earning most their money as refiners, perhaps they could sell us some of the fully refined product at a serious discount and even then still make a huge profit?

Albeit that would include our government, a more pragmatic one getting into the can't lose energy business.

Even so, I'll bet the profit margins they could then earn as a supplier and distributor, would vastly outweigh the tiddling little bit they now earn as excise?

Time to put Australia and Australians first, rather than the 4+ trillion a year oil cartels!

A significantly lower price for energy would give our punch drunk and staggering economy a huge stimulating boost!?
Rhrosty.
Posted by Rhrosty, Sunday, 22 November 2015 10:53:45 AM
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US Congress woman admits that the USA is arming ISIS. The Saudis and Israel do likewise.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHkher6ceaA#t=199
Posted by Arjay, Monday, 23 November 2015 5:36:28 AM
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