Who can disagree with what you wrote? It in no way contradicts my previous post.
However, I have a question. As oil companies value their market capitalization on known and expected reserves, why is Russia treated like such a creep in the media? Big oil knows - like Putin or not - that Russia is key to increasing market capitalization of oil companies. Exxon knows this, Conoco know this, Total knows this, etc. Russia is also key to China's energy future - the Kremlin is sitting pretty for the moment.
What is going on? If Doug's "it's the _control_ of potential rent income that's crucial" is in play, why is Russia treated like it's not of our world in media?
> On 7/25/05, Peter Lavelle
> <untimely_thoughts at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Just a quick comment on oil prices. It is a myth
> that
> > petro consuming countries are obsessed with oil
> > prices.
>
> It's not petrol-consuming countries that are so
> obsessed. It's their
> foreign policy-making elites. Further, I'd say
> they're not interested
> in the price as much as the scarcity-rents (i.e.,
> price _minus_ cost
> of production). Thus, the focus on places like Saudi
> Arabia, where
> rents are especially high. On top of that, as Doug
> noted, it's the
> _control_ of potential rent income that's crucial.
> --
> Jim Devine
> "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the
> experts" -- Richard Feynman
>
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