<html><body> <DIV>No doubt that Russia produces a lot of oil - although I recall reading in a couple of places recently that its production is near peak. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>True, energy prices have historically fluctuated - boom and bust - as in 1986.  But at that time Saudi Arabia had the excess capacity to flood the market with crude and drive the price down.  If it still has that capacity now, it hasn't used it..   Either the Saudi monarchy is, for unexplained reasons,  resisting the entreaties of its patron the United State to increase production, or it can't.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> Granted that if the price of natural gas falls, revenue obviously falls too.  But does Europe have alternative supplies of natural gas sufficient to enable them to refuse to buy Russian gas? which country has the capacity now to flood the market with natural gas sufficient to drive the price down to the levels of 1/2 its current price? SR</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message -------------- <BR>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood@panix.com> <BR><BR>> <BR>> On Jul 14, 2006, at 1:06 PM, Steven L. Robinson wrote: <BR>> <BR>> > Russia is a bigger player in natural gas than in oil <BR>> <BR>> Russian oil production is considerably larger than all of Latin <BR>> America's, is twice Iran's, and is close to Saudi Arabia's. They <BR>> consume a lot of it domestically, but their exports are still larger <BR>> than Kuwait & Iran's combined. <BR>> <BR>> > and given the dependency of Europe on Russian supplies, a <BR>> > collapse of that fuel hardly seems likely. <BR>> <BR>> If the price fell by half, the revenue would too, no? <BR>> <BR>> Doug <BR>> > <BR>> > <BR>> ___________________________________ <BR>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </BLOCKQUOT E></body></html>