RadioBanter - View Single Post

December 7th 03, 05:53 AM

In article ,
(Steve Robeson, K4CAP) writes:

Our only valid interest in that region is maintaining the
petroleum flow and free navigation via the Suez Canal. If geological
studies are correct, Russia has petroleum reserves that exceed
anything the Arabs have, so I think rather than sending arms to Israel
and money to the Arabs, we should be investing our engineering
resources farther north. The Arabs would go broke which would
relegate them back to bedouin tents in a generation. No money means
no guns, and the Israelis would no longer need OUR weapons.

Steve:

The problem with Russian vs. Arab oil is that the Arabian oil is a whole
lot easier to get at. You poke a hole in the sand, stick a pipe in it,
and out it comes. Moreover, the oil fields are located close to accessible
sea ports, meaning relatively short and inexpensive transport of the oil
to the ships that will carry it away to the customers. I'm not at all
certain, but I'm pretty sure you'd find that Russian oil is not only a
whole lot further away from sea ports, but also a lot harder to drill
for. A hot, arid climate, while not particularly comfortable, is still a
whole lot easier to deal with than a frigid one when it comes to
crude oil production. If Russia's oil were, in fact, economically feasible
to produce, I have no doubt that those resources would be being
exploited to the greatest extent possible.

Of course that would tick off the Germans who'd be selling a lot
fewer Mercedes and Audis, but they'd make up the slack on the back end
selling them in Moscow ! ! !

They'd be better off sending their oil to Japan, which would then oblige
by spewing out Toyotas, Honda's, and Nissans for the Russian market.

73 de Larry, K3LT