International Hydrocarbon Wars: Russia, Saudi Arabia & US Shale (Trump Saves The Day? OPEC+ Cuts 10 Million BPD)

All we can do is wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks and months. On another (far off) note: this according to an Arrian account; around the time Hephaestion fell sick, died and got his extragavant $1.5 billion equivalent funeral. <45>

“Near Babylon, Alexander constructed a harbor by excavation to afford anchorage for 1,000 ships of war; and adjoining the harbor he built dockyards. Miccalus the Clazomenian was dispatched to Phoenicia with 500 talents to enlist some men and purchase others who were experienced in nautical affairs.

He made these preparations for the fleet to attack the main body of the Arab and planned to occupy Arabia under the pretext that they were the only barbarians of this region who had not sent an embassy to him or done anything else becoming their position and showing respect to him. But the truth was, as it seems to me, that Alexander was insatiably ambitious of acquiring fresh territory.”


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Haha interesting topic veer there. Arabia was also a source if myrrh or whatever that scented stuff was from. Would have been a good source of wealth.

The Persians also occupied a lot of the Arabian peninsula on the Gulf side. So there was that reason for going to war.
Alexander was good at womping tribal nomads. He did it in Afghanistan but had to get cooties to get them to calm down.
 
Haha interesting topic veer there. Arabia was also a source if myrrh or whatever that scented stuff was from. Would have been a good source of wealth.

The Persians also occupied a lot of the Arabian peninsula on the Gulf side. So there was that reason for going to war.
Alexander was good at womping tribal nomads. He did it in Afghanistan but had to get cooties to get them to calm down.

Man, Afghanistan has always been a historical bitch-and-a-half for anyone that has ever engaged wading through and dealing with it. Alexander lost nearly as many soldiers in one day there as he had conquering all of the lands between the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Persia. It wasn't really his thing to deliberately slaughter civilians, but that was disproportionately amped up as well.
 
Venezuela's PDVSA: The World's Worst Oil Company

The extent of PDVSA’s mismanagement can be seen by taking a look at its production and reserve figures. Under the direction of Luis Giusti in the 1994-98 period, PDVSA’s production soared. But, that boom was cut short. In 1999, the socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez became Venezuela’s president and introduced Chavismo.

With that, PDVSA’s oil output started a downward slide (see the chart below). That slide became a plunge after the coup attempt of April 2002. It was then that Chavez purged PDVSA of its professionals en masse and replaced them with “reliable” hands – those who worshiped at Chavez’s altar.


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To determine whether PDVSA’s output drop is deplorable or not, we must look at the company’s proven reserves and the rate at which they are depleted. The depletion rate, which is determined by dividing annual production in any given year by the proven reserves in any given prior year, provides a key to understanding the economics of an oil company and the value of its reserves.

As the chart above shows, PDVSA’s depletion rate has been falling like a stone since 2007. At present, it sits at 0.35%. That rate implies the median time to extraction and sale for a barrel of PDVSA’s oil is 198.6 years.

Because of positive time preference and discounting, the value of a barrel of oil in the ground depends on the time taken to get it above ground. If, for example, the price of oil remains the same, a barrel of oil produced and sold today is worth more than a barrel produced and sold tomorrow. Given the incredibly low rate at which PDVSA is depleting its reserves, Venezuela’s reserves – the world’s largest – are essentially worthless.


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Lmao. The US innovates it's way into record production with technology, engineering and the drive of capitalism. Venezuela throws away a turn key Cash cow for socialism.

Don't forget, Bernie believes in bread lines!
 
Yeah, that bill was actually first introduced 20 years ago and has been floating in some iteration ever since, but it's kind of a delicate balance.

Indeed, but why bring it today? ARAMCO isnt even close to being predominant to be called a monopoly and while i would like to see price fixing gone, i think the problem is that there was none.

How much impact do you think oil actually has on global daily dollar demand? Is that really it or is the United States just the most dominant military power in the world with the most open, innovative and productive economy on the globe thereby making USD the most convenient, liquid and reliable medium of exchange?

It stops being convenient and reliable when you start using it to dick around.
 
Trump’s Ultimate Weapon To End The Oil War

The bill would immediately remove the sovereign immunity that presently exists in U.S. courts for OPEC as a group and for each and every one of its individual member states. This would leave Saudi Arabia, for instance, open to being sued under existing U.S. anti-trust legislation, with its total liability being its estimated $1 trillion of investments in the U.S. alone.

The U.S. would then be legally entitled to freeze all Saudi bank accounts in the United States, seize all of its assets in the country, halt all use of U.S. dollars by the Saudis anywhere in the world and to go after Aramco and its assets and funds, as it is still a majority state-owned production and trading vehicle.

It would also mean that Aramco could be ordered to break itself up into smaller, constituent companies that are not deemed to break competition rules in the oil, gas, and petrochemicals sectors or to influence the oil price.




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Wasn't all of this already included in the original NOPEC act? Trump himself blocked it the last time. So all he has to do is let it breeze through Congress (for the 16th time) without vetoing it and he looks like the triumphant hero? What a no-brainer. If this passes, the Dems are fucked in November.
 
All we can do is wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks and months. On another (far off) note: this according to an Arrian account; around the time Hephaestion fell sick, died and got his fabulous* $1.5 billion equivalent funeral. <45>

“Near Babylon, Alexander constructed a harbor by excavation to afford anchorage for 1,000 ships of war; and adjoining the harbor he built dockyards. Miccalus the Clazomenian was dispatched to Phoenicia with 500 talents to enlist some men and purchase others who were experienced in nautical affairs.

He made these preparations for the fleet to attack the main body of the Arab and planned to occupy Arabia under the pretext that they were the only barbarians of this region who had not sent an embassy to him or done anything else becoming their position and showing respect to him. But the truth was, as it seems to me, that Alexander was insatiably ambitious of acquiring fresh territory.”


pzoqdkbbbc901.jpg

Recently archaeologists have discovered Seleucid forts were maintained on Bahrain for a century or so after Alexander, and Seleucid forces probably controlled several coastal settlements on the Persian gulf.
 
What does the debt of the country have to do with US oil when it's not government owned?

It's strategic, all fossil fuels get government support in some ways. My point was not so much about US debt, but lower debt for those with more reliance on oil.
 
Man, Afghanistan has always been a historical bitch-and-a-half for anyone that has ever engaged wading through and dealing with it. Alexander lost nearly as many soldiers in one day there as he had conquering all of the lands between the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Persia. It wasn't really his thing to deliberately slaughter civilians, but that was disproportionately amped up as well.
Guerilla war is an awful thing to deal with. But he did manage to figure it out and stop it.
I would love to find more contemporary sources. But the earliest copy of Alexander is from like 300 AD. Would love to see real details and not vague hand waving
 
Guerilla war is an awful thing to deal with. But he did manage to figure it out and stop it.
I would love to find more contemporary sources. But the earliest copy of Alexander is from like 300 AD. Would love to see real details and not vague hand waving

It still falls short, but we can do a bit better than 300 AD. Diodorus is 1st century BC; Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus all 1st/2nd century AD.

There are numerous surviving ancient Greek and Latin sources on Alexander the Great, as well as some Asian texts. The five main surviving accounts are by Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius, and Justin.

Contemporaries who wrote accounts of his life include Alexander's campaign historian Callisthenes; Alexander's generals Ptolemy and Nearchus; Aristobulus, a junior officer on the campaigns; and Onesicritus, Alexander's chief helmsman.

In addition to the five main sources, there is the Metz Epitome, a late Latin work that narrates Alexander's campaigns from Hyrcania to India. Finally, there is the very influential account of Cleitarchus who, while not a direct witness of Alexander's expedition, used sources which had just been published.

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This is pretty awesome from a historical legacy perspective, and he's most likely still buried in Egypt somewhere in the vicinity of the city.

Alexandria is a major economic centre and the second-largest city in Egypt with a population of 5,200,000, extending 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is an important industrial center because of its oil and natural gas pipelines from Suez, as well as a popular tourist destination. Alexandria was founded around a small, ancient Egyptian town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire.

Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley. Alexandria became a significant city of Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman and Byzantine Egypt for almost 1,000 years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo).

Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its Great Library (the largest in the ancient world); and the Necropolis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. It was at one time the intellectual and cultural center and second most powerful city of the ancient Mediterranean region, after Rome.


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Personal wealth isnt, and Trump cares about his personal wealth above all.

He is for sure richer. Via back channel means and family and friends investment. The real richest people on earth arent Bezos and Gates.
Guerilla war is an awful thing to deal with. But he did manage to figure it out and stop it.
I would love to find more contemporary sources. But the earliest copy of Alexander is from like 300 AD. Would love to see real details and not vague hand waving

The world could of had a stable afghanistan if the US didnt empower the Taliban. The overthrow of the socialist Soviet backed government and giving advanced weaponry to the Taliban made it a mess. And unless the Soviets went full genocide it was doomed to fail. If the Taliban was never financially supported and had no weapons then Soviet puppet rule would of continued uninterupted for a while I am sure. All Jihadi opposition powerless to fight back and would die in jail or be executed



Lets hope they burn through their Sovereign wealth fund and lose market share to the Russians.
 
Lets hope they burn through their Sovereign wealth fund and lose market share to the Russians.

As long as the average US producer breakeven goes back to being below market price, I'm fine with basically any outcome. That's the only principal goal and necessity, everything else will take care of itself and things don't need to be dramatic. I don't really mind the prices from a consumer POV for the time being considering how often I'm on the road for both business and leisure (though not so much now).
 
It still falls short, but we can do a bit better than 300 AD. Diodorus is 1st century BC; Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus all 1st/2nd century AD.

There are numerous surviving ancient Greek and Latin sources on Alexander the Great, as well as some Asian texts. The five main surviving accounts are by Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius, and Justin.

Contemporaries who wrote accounts of his life include Alexander's campaign historian Callisthenes; Alexander's generals Ptolemy and Nearchus; Aristobulus, a junior officer on the campaigns; and Onesicritus, Alexander's chief helmsman.

In addition to the five main sources, there is the Metz Epitome, a late Latin work that narrates Alexander's campaigns from Hyrcania to India. Finally, there is the very influential account of Cleitarchus who, while not a direct witness of Alexander's expedition, used sources which had just been published.

ATG.png


This is pretty awesome from a historical legacy perspective, and he's most likely still buried in Egypt somewhere in the vicinity of the city.

Alexandria is a major economic centre and the second-largest city in Egypt with a population of 5,200,000, extending 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is an important industrial center because of its oil and natural gas pipelines from Suez, as well as a popular tourist destination. Alexandria was founded around a small, ancient Egyptian town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire.

Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley. Alexandria became a significant city of Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman and Byzantine Egypt for almost 1,000 years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo).

Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its Great Library (the largest in the ancient world); and the Necropolis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. It was at one time the intellectual and cultural center and second most powerful city of the ancient Mediterranean region, after Rome.


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Haven't read up on him in years thought the sources were older. But that's not bad being only 200 years after the fact. Think Caesars also have a big difference between the event and the oldest existing copy.

Too bad the Egyptians and not the Hellenistic peoples rule it. It'd be amazing by now if a dynamic society ruled it
 
Haven't read up on him in years thought the sources were older. But that's not bad being only 200 years after the fact. Think Caesars also have a big difference between the event and the oldest existing copy.

Too bad the Egyptians and not the Hellenistic peoples rule it. It'd be amazing by now if a dynamic society ruled it

I read something on him just about every week, but you know that's my boy. The biggest advantage Arrian and Plutarch have are that they had access to the primary sources of Alexander's contemporaries before they were lost or destroyed. Even for a figure as enormously historically significant as ATG, there is an unbelievable amount of information for someone that lived from 356-323 BC.

As far as sources they drew from, Ptolemy is Ptolemy and one of his most formidable companions although Arrian suspected that he sometimes exaggerated his own role in several battles. Nearchus was an older soldier and mentor that was later made the Macedonian fleet commander. Aristobulus was a friend of Alexander's father who was with him for the duration, but a non-combatant observer political official and engineer.

Plutarch focused on and penned a lot more about his character, personal life and relationships, with The Life of Alexander being the most well known. He knew so much about his childhood and teenage years in part because a privileged peer named Marsyas wrote about growing up and being educated alongside Alexander.
 
@dissectingaorticaneurysm

Womanish?! :mad: That's fucked up. <45>
Curtius reports, "He scorned sensual pleasures to such an extent that his mother was anxious lest he be unable to beget offspring." To encourage a relationship with a woman, King Philip and Olympias were said to have brought in a high-priced Thessalian courtesan named Callixena. According to Athenaeus, she was employed by Olympias out of fear that Alexander was "womanish" (γύννις), and his mother used to beg him to sleep with the courtesan, apparently to no success.

Ancient authors see this as proof of Alexander's self-control in regards to sensual pleasures, and accounts are also known of his stern refusal to accept indiscreet offers from men who tried to pimp him male prostitutes, among whom, according to Aeschines and Hypereides, was the renowned Athenian orator Demosthenes. According to Carystius, Alexander praised the beauty of a boy at a gathering - probably a slave belonging to one Charon of Chalcis - but when the latter instructed him to kiss Alexander, the king refused.

Alexander had a close emotional attachment to his cavalry commander, companion and childhood friend, Hephaestion. Described as "by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with him and shared all of his secrets." He studied with Alexander, as did a handful of other children of Macedonian aristocracy, under the tutelege of Aristotle. The two were possible lovers, and Aristotle had described their relationship as "one soul abiding two bodies".

No other circumstance shows better the nature and length of their relationship than Alexander's overwhelming grief at Hephaestion's death. Arrian says that Alexander "flung himself on the body of his friend, laid there nearly all day long in tears and refused to be parted from him until he was dragged away by force by his companions". He states that all his sources agree that "for two whole days after Hephaestion's death, Alexander tasted no food and paid no attention in any way to his bodily needs but lay on his bed now crying lamentably, now in the silence of grief".
:(
 
I read something on him just about every week, but you know that's my boy. The biggest advantage Arrian and Plutarch have are that they had access to the primary sources of Alexander's contemporaries before they were lost or destroyed. Even for a figure as enormously historically significant as ATG, there is an unbelievable amount of information for someone that lived from 356-323 BC.

As far as sources they drew from, Ptolemy is Ptolemy and one of his most formidable companions although Arrian suspected that he sometimes exaggerated his own role in several battles. Nearchus was an older soldier and mentor that was later made the Macedonian fleet commander. Aristobulus was a friend of Alexander's father who was with him for the duration, but a non-combatant observer political official and engineer.

Plutarch focused on and penned a lot more about his character, personal life and relationships, with The Life of Alexander being the most well known. He knew so much about his childhood and teenage years in part because a privileged peer named Marsyas wrote about growing up and being educated alongside Alexander.
Interesting. I was under the impression that Macedon was a hickish backwater relative to Athens, and it wasn't until Phillip's successes that academics and scholars began trickling in. Was Alexander perhaps the most carefully observed child of the Classical period?

Phillip was the ultimate tiger dad. Buys up all the best talent in the known world to guide, develop, and document his son to fulfill his imperial ambitions. The results speak for themselves.
@dissectingaorticaneurysm

Womanish?! :mad: That's fucked up. <45>

:(
Certainly better than Pence's methods, and no less effective.
 
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