It may not be entirely clear on here, but I
have some real issues with oil producers and the politics that goes with it.
Being born in the 60’s, I have grown up in a society that is very closely
linked with global oil production and all the politics related to this. Having
just now entered 2016, I find it appalling that we have not yet been able to
develop and produce a proper alternative to fossil fuel for all our energy
needs. The oil lobbies have managed to ensure that very little is actually done
about finding alternatives, and instead do what they can to push a high
consumption and dependency of the black gold. The fact that it all spills over
in to global geopolitics has been creating a devastation far greater than that
of any major oil spill has throughout modern history.
I recently wrote an entry about how to resolve
the CO2 emissions problem by taxing fuel sales in the US. As much as I believe
this may very well be a possible step in the right direction, I also do not
believe for an instant that it may work. Well here I wanted to look at a very
interesting and current connection between oil and geopolitics.
2015 was particularly marked by the rather
surprising rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. There is a very plausible theory how
this has come about as a mixed result of US intervention in Iraq, and then a
later desire for Qatar and Saudi Arabia to want to build a pipeline through
Syria. The details of this theory can be discussed in another post, as here I
wanted to look at one of the key elements of how ISIS finances themselves. It
is a known fact that much of their money comes from oil extracted in Iraq and
Syria. The actual amounts extracted is however open to quite some debate, but
it does appear to be a fair amount. Certainly their potential daily production
goes a long way to financing their current war, and it is furthermore suspected
that they are also obtaining additional financing from Saudi and Qatar in an
effort to overthrow Bashar el Assad in Syria. The big question however is how
are they actually selling this oil?
Clearly it should be fairly easy to hinder this
financial income by intervening in its sales. Certainly no European country
would be purchasing oil from such a dubious origin regardless of the price.
Turkey on the other hand does not seem to have any such scruples. We have
recently heard about Putin accusing Turkey for being the primary place were the
ISIS oil is being sold, but much of the world’s media is scoffing this off as
being more of Putin’s anger at having one of his planes shot down by Turkey. Nevertheless,
it does seem to make sense, and when you read a report produced by a Norwegian
institute called Rystad Energy there appears to be more than Putin’s temper
behind the accusations. Their findings clearly point to the majority of the
ISIS oil being sold to Turkey at highly discounted prices. The truck “pipeline”
described by the Russians does indeed seem to be a reality.
Turkey obviously refutes these claims
completely. To me however the situation is particularly perverse, and it seems
to be getting worse. I very much believe the oil trade to Turkey to be true,
and this would then imply that the US is allowing for this to continue.
Essentially the US, together with NATO, are allowing for ISIS to continue to
finance themselves so that they can continue to fight Bashar in Syria. However
this financing is then also finding its way to enabling all the recent
terrorist attacks carried out in Europe and the US. Given how close Turkey is
to the West, it should really be a very simple thing to fully put an end to
ISIS financing, thus ultimately ending the war, yet nothing is happening. Instead
the EU have now even revived talks of having Turkey join the union!
I suppose it would have been a lot easier to
put an end to the financing if it was actually done with the help of Swiss
banks. The US does not seem to have problem in attacking these institutions
even in cases where they really have not done anything wrong. However here
Turkey is enabling ISIS to grow stronger, and yet nobody but the Russians is
trying to do something about it.
There was a major oil crisis in the 70’s. It
hit the global economy hard at the time, and it started leading to researches
trying to find alternative energy sources. Unfortunately the oil price was
rapidly brought back down again, and with the help of OPEC was contained,
controlled and manipulated. Most, if not all, efforts for alternative solutions
were abandoned (or forced out of business). Had we then instead decided to stay
that route, now 40 years later we would probably be more or less done with oil.
Instead, as we saw a strong increase again in oil prices these last few years,
efforts have always been to try and extract more oil. With the advent of
fracking, there were suddenly huge untapped resources in the US (as well as
elsewhere). This has since led to a sharp drop in oil price to levels that are
downright silly. The alternative energy producers have yet again been discarded
to the benefit of oil and gas. There are some people, such as Elon Musk, that
are trying to break through the oil hegemony, and although he has obtain quite
some fame as a result, it all remains very marginal in the grander scheme of
things.
But learning from our past mistakes and finally
getting rid of most fossil fuel, would not just help save the planet. It would
also go a very long way in resolving most of the global conflicts as the focus
around the world would finally shift away from oil. Much of the conflicts and
terrorist activities that we have witnessed since that oil crisis in the 70’s
are directly linked to oil, and so would probably never have existed if it was
not for the oil lobbies. It may now be very late in the game, but there is
still some time left to try and sort a couple of things out for there to
actually be a future.
