George Bush begs Saudi King for help

Oil turns out to be too expensive for the USA. World’s only superpower now has to beg oil-mining countries to do something to stop oil prices from growing. U.S. President Bush set out a hope during his meeting with Saudi King in Riyadh that OPEC would take into consideration the negative influence which high oil prices exert on the U.S. economy.

Bush’s statement in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the most influential members of OPEC, means that the critical economy of the United States will not be able to purchase expensive oil at current volumes. A barrel of fine oil is already traded on the level of $100.

“The USA is the largest oil consumer on the world market. If the nation imposes restrictions on its own oil consumption it will lead to negative consequences for major oil suppliers,” Mikhail Zak, a spokesman for Veles Capital Investment Corporation told Pravda.ru.

“However, the U.S. economy greatly depends on energy carriers. The technologies that are widely used in the U.S. economy at the moment are all based on good old oil and gas,” the specialist added.

Oil-mining countries can only careless about Bush’s requests or threats against such a background. There is no chance for the USA to cut its oil consumption without causing a serious damage to its own economy. “Any of such restrictions will make the U.S. economy decline, which is the last thing the U.S. administration wants at the moment. If purchasing current amounts of oil becomes unprofitable for the USA, it will start to use its own oil reserves more actively,” Mikhail Zak said.

Bush’s statement in Riyadh is more significant from the political point of view. The Republicans will soon have to bid farewell to their reign in the USA. Practically all presidential candidates stand strongly against the war in Iraq. It brings up the idea that the next president will take maximum effort to withdraw troops from the war-torn country.

On the other hand, the puppet theater of the new Iraqi regime will not last long without American soldiers. The ambition of U.S. oil corporations that import Iraqi oil in huge quantities may decline as well. The activities of oil companies in Iraq are based on the production sharing agreement – their work is not transparent to say the least.

It may also happen that the USA will indeed suffer from the lack of the Iraqi oil when it ends the military presence there. “This is pure politics. It is clear that oil companies will lose a certain amount of support when Democrats come to power in the USA,” Mikhail Zak said. One shall assume that George Bush’s speech in Saudi Arabia demonstrated desperate attempts of American oil companies to strengthen their positions.

Sergei Malinin