Noam Chomsky on OPEC and Oil Prices - The New World Order Part 11 (1998)

November 30, 1998 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww....

Watch the full lecture: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/noam-chomsky-on-new-world-order-1...

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, pronounced /ˈoʊpɛk/ OH-pek) is a cartel of twelve countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings among the oil ministers of its Member Countries. Indonesia withdrew in 2008 after it became a net importer of oil, but stated it would likely return if it became a net exporter in the world again.

According to its statutes, one of the principal goals is the determination of the best means for safeguarding the cartel's interests, individually and collectively. It also pursues ways and means of ensuring the stabilization of prices in international oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations; giving due regard at all times to the interests of the producing nations and to the necessity of securing a steady income to the producing countries; an efficient and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations, and a fair return on their capital to those investing in the petroleum industry.

OPEC's influence on the market has been widely criticized, since it became effective in determining production and prices. Arab members of OPEC alarmed the developed world when they used the oil weapon during the Yom Kippur War by implementing oil embargoes and initiating the 1973 oil crisis. Although largely political explanations for the timing and extent of the OPEC price increases are also valid, from OPECs point of view, these changes were triggered largely by previous unilateral changes in the world financial system and the ensuing period of high inflation in both the developed and developing world. This explanation encompasses OPEC actions both before and after the outbreak of hostilities in October 1973, and concludes that OPEC countries were only staying even by dramatically raising the dollar price of oil.

OPEC's ability to control the price of oil has diminished somewhat since then, due to the subsequent discovery and development of large oil reserves in Alaska, the North Sea, Canada, the Gulf of Mexico, the opening up of Russia, and market modernization. OPEC nations still account for two-thirds of the world's oil reserves, and, as of April 2009, 33.3% of the world's oil production, affording them considerable control over the global market. The next largest group of producers, members of the OECD and the Post-Soviet states produced only 23.8% and 14.8%, respectively, of the world's total oil production. As early as 2003, concerns that OPEC members had little excess pumping capacity sparked speculation that their influence on crude oil prices would begin to slip.

Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group) is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in the Financial District of San Francisco, Bechtel had 44,000 employees as of 2009 working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $31.4 billion in revenue.

Bechtel participated in the building of Hoover Dam in the 1930s. It has also had involvement in several other high profile construction engineering projects, including the Channel Tunnel, numerous power projects, refineries, and nuclear power plants, BART, Jubail Industrial City and Kingdom Centre and Tower in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong International Airport, the Big Dig, the rebuilding of the civil infrastructure of Iraq funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the hauling and installing of more than 35,000 trailers and mobile homes for Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi.

The Bechtel family has owned Bechtel since incorporating the company in 1945. Bechtel's size, its political clout, and its penchant for privacy have made it a constant subject of scrutiny for journalists and politicians since the 1930s. Bechtel owns and operates power plants, oil refineries, water systems, and airports in several countries including the United States, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

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[TheNova1960]

@PamojaYouth  It's time to become less dependant on the mid/east and create jobs right here on US soil.

[PamojaYouth]

@TheNova1960 more drilling in the US wont affect price of oil. It is set on the world market.

[Ollie9402]

@Bmosh1133 Nah, he makes me feel all the information out there is decipherable.

[TheNova1960]

@cantizzo07 Well, get used to it because they have already started! We either drill or starve to death I prefer eating!

[cantizzo07]

@TheNova1960 I live in South Texas and I sure as hell don't want fracking being done in my backyard, or anywhere remotely close to a rural or metropolitan area for that matter. 

[TheNova1960]

Hello...we have oil in South Texas! EPA wants to regulate hydro-fracturing before we can drill? We don't need the mid/east it seems they are running this country and most of us are sick of it. 2 million jobs could be created, reduce fuel prices, and get out of the mid/east.

[mistermoen]

"You just stay optimistic. That's the only way anything will ever happen." I love that.

[Bmosh1133]

what makes you feel more insignificant and dumb? ...Noam chomsky or noam chomsky

[5tranger]

thick ass persian accent there. :))

[Hopleet]

Turd world!