Oil Crisis. Oh, really? They are hiding oil offshore. By Linn Cohen-Cole

[Demeter]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Oil-Crisis---Oh--really----by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-080618-734.html


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June 18, 2008



....We know that oil is being moved off shore and hidden. We know that ... wait, wait, wait - what was that last one?


We know that oil is being moved off shore and hidden.


Who says?


Oil Movements. A weekly report on the movement of oil tankers. Wall Street Journal (October 16 2000) says: "These aren't the musings of some academic. Mr. Mason publishes a weekly report, Oil Movements, that heavily influences the projections of petroleum experts and, ultimately, affects the price of petroleum
itself."


Reuters, Dow Jones and Bloomberg cite it and the leading oil industry publications use it as a data source, as does the OPEC secretariat.


Ed Wallace, reporting in the Fort Worth, Texas Star Telegram, http://www.star-telegram.com/ed_wallace/story/651928.html


"While researching my third article for BusinessWeek online about the world’s oil situation in 2008, I asked for the most current report from Oil Movements. Because the oil industry is not transparent, Oil Movements tracks every tanker at sea, from both OPEC and non-OPEC oil countries, along with their cargoes’ final destinations. Anne O’Shea responded immediately to my request with their report dated May 8, 2008."

Mr. Wallace says that all classes of oil shipments, except one, have gone up since a year ago, including Middle East oil in transit and Non-OPEC oil in Transit."

Which class has gone down? The 4-Week Changes in Westbound Oil at Sea.

Mr. Wallace points out that "shipments of oil headed west have shown serious declines during the month of April, down 800,000 barrels per day in the week before the publication of the report." He goes on to give us the first line from under the Westbound Oil shipments chart: "In the west, a big share of any stock building done this year has happened offshore, out of sight."

Clearly impressed himself, he goes on,

"Oil Movements, the unimpeachable source for finding the real world situation on oil transits, is saying that oil is being hidden offshore, not declared in inventories? Yes, that is exactly what they are saying.

"That same week our refineries cut their production runs back to 85 percent, down from 89 percent a year ago, to trim more gasoline out of our stock reserves, to increase their profits per gallon."

What is going on? Hiding oil to drive up the price? To get tax breaks despite mammoth profits? To get Congress to open up ANWAR and the off-shore drilling?

Who ever heard of such a thing?

Well ... we have.

Remember Enron?

[Mojorabbit]

1. Profits to be made in the short term

and it would not surprise me at all with the huge run up in price. Still does not address the long term problem.

[whistle]

2. As I recall the same thing was done during the first oil crisis by OPEC

...back in 1973-74 with the "seven sisters" embargo.

The oil giants and speculators now have simply refined the techniques of control and crony corruption

[truedelphi]

3. Now now Congress sat those oil execs down just a week or two ago.

I'm sure that all this will be straightened out real soon.

Like when Hell freezes over.

[angrycarpenter]

4. They are hiding it to dump it

on the market when they need gas prices to fall near the election. That's my guess.

[Demeter]

7. That Makes A Lot of Sense

Thanks for the insight.

[tom_paine]

11. Bingo. Not to worry, though. Relief is coming Sept.-Dec.

Totalitarian nations like ours are so predictable.

[Skink]

5. Opecs strategic reserve

[defendandprotect]

6. And what happened to releasing US oil reserves . . .??????

[robinlynne]

8. kick these f...ers straight to jail.

[snappyturtle]

9. K&R OMG! Hiding oil? This is outrageous......KO should learn of this.

We are so screwed.....where will it all end? It's obvious the oil people and other energy sources types are going to get every red cent they can bleed out of the public and world-at-large. What can we do?

[bluesmail]

10. The way I understand this crappy mess is that during the Clinton

years, Intercontinental Exchange was 'born' and ICE placed 'bets' or futures on the future pResident being *. They kept a low profile, naturally, and when the time was Just Right, they swooped down b/c the time was Just Right, no regulation, b/c Gramm , both Phil and Wendy had done what they were getting paid to do. :wow:

[Joanne98]

12. I was looking for this story a couple of days ago. Thanx