The oil Price crisis in Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The oil Price crisis in Britain - Essay Example In The Daily Telegraph publication (The Daily Telegraph: 20 June 2008), executive foreign editor Con Coughlin asserted that "as things stand, protecting their precious reserves, rather than providing the world with cheaper oil, appears to be their main priority". In a similar tone The Times' chief foreign affairs commentator Bronwen Maddox described the Opec summit in Jeddah "a Saudi show, to deliver a Saudi message" (The Times: 25 June 2008), stating that , "Before Sunday's meeting, King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz al-Saud said that the kingdom was resolved to prevent oil prices from rising 'in an unjustified and abnormal manner', while announcing an increase in production too small to have any such impact." In other twist , Con Coughlin, The Telegraph's executive foreign editor, argued that the country is operating to capacity in the article published in The Telegraph (The Telegraph: 20 June 2008). He mentioned that, "the Saudis announced their intention to increase production by another 500,000 barrels per day, which will bring total production to 9.7 million barrels - the kingdom's highest ever level. And that is about the upper limit of what the Saudis can produce for any sustained period." However, "the Saudis will only produce more oil if they believe it is in their interests to do so," The somewhat incongruous perspective by Coughlin presents connotations tending to place blame over the oil price crisis on Saudi Arabia. Other opinion slants presented in the media coverage of the oil price crisis in Britain have focused on the reality of rising demands for oil which has not been succored on commensurate production levels. The BP Statistical Review OF the world Energy quoted in the Energy and Capital e-letter for August 2008 presents that, "It's no secret anymore that for every nine barrels of oil we consume, we are only discovering one."(The BP Statistical Review of World Energy August 11th, 2008). The writer in the article mentions that there is unprecedented oil usage rate on a global scale which has not been sustained by any feasible production increase measures. "The world is addicted to oil. In just 8 years, it's projected the world will be consuming nearly 50,000 gallons of oil every second. By that time, the world won't be able to meet the projected demand... for one simple reason: We're using up oil at breakneck speed. And it's also no secret that official oil reserve numbers furnished by OPEC member governments have been fudged for years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) even admitted to knowing about some of OPEC's wizards cooking their books." (Opcit) The electronic title also provides some sweeping predictions in an advertising blurb aimed at getting readers to subscribe to the e-letter. Some of the predictions enlisted are; Why we're never going to see oil priced at $40 a barrel ever again, what we learned from the 1970s oil crisis, and where the future of oil really stands... How oil reserve supplies will tighten, prices will continue jumping, and the world economy will feel the squeeze... The 3 best ways to capitalize on the investment opportunities of a post-oil economy. In another reportage Independent columnist Dominic Lawson vindicated Saudi Arabia (and Opec) from blame in the current price crisis, writing that "far from operating as a