Oil wars
American oil companies have been unsympathetic to OPEC since the birth of that organisation. The day it was founded, The New York Times predicted not only its failure but death, triggering a conflict that was to be compounded by the 1973 War, with the event altering the balance of power to such an extent that oil producing countries unilaterally raised the price of oil. The enmity between OPEC and Washington has not ceased, which explains the latter's focus on the regimes of oil producing countries. And it is in this context that Washington's interventions in the Persian Gulf, Iran, Venezuela and Indonesia should be assessed.
These days the conflict has reached unprecedented heights, drawing in several new parties, with crude oil prices higher than ever. Nor is the price of oil likely to go back down to an average of $28-30 per barrel in the near future, since a new class of beneficiaries who emerged following the rise in price -- middlemen and brokers working on an international scale -- will no doubt ensure that it stays high; and that is not to mention other more conventional causes like increased demand for oil, the scarcity of new oil fields and drops in the oil reserves of major consumers.
But political tensions in the world at large, and especially in oil producing countries, remain the main factor in escalating the crisis. Tensions in the Middle East, whether originating in Palestine or Iraq, have resulted in the bombing of oil fields in Saudi Arabia, the targeting of foreign employees of oil companies, not to mention prolonged general unrest. Likewise oil pipelines in Iraqi cities, where conditions remain volatile, are primary targets for attack; besides which production has ceased at several sites in Iraq.
In Venezuela, too, the third greatest exporter of oil in the world, persistent American intervention, endorsing opposition to President Hugo Chavez, has resulted in instability.
Oil causes one flare-up after another throughout the world, with some analysts claiming that the Darfur crisis is due to the presence of oil reserves in this part of Sudan. Likewise Yemen, Algeria, Iran, Indonesia and Algeria have had, and will in all likelihood continue to have, problems for the same reason.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/705/ed.htm