“I don’t think they’re pumping flat out,” Bush said.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush is seeking relief from record-high gas prices and support for Middle East peace as he opens his Texas ranch to Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer.

Bush said he’ll make clear Monday that it’s not in Saudi Arabia’s interests to keep oil prices high. “If they pinch the world economy too much, it’ll affect their ability to sell crude oil in the long run,” he said in a television interview last week.

The president also said he’s looking for “a straight answer” on how close the Saudis are to reaching production capacity. “I don’t think they’re pumping flat out,” Bush said.

Meeting closed to cameras
Bush’s goal of spreading democracy across the Arab world also faces a difficult test with Saudi Arabia, a longtime ally ruled by absolute monarchy. Traditionally Bush holds news conferences with visiting foreign leaders, but there will be none during this visit because Abdullah rarely talks with reporters.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7625020/

[htuttle]

1. "affect their ability to sell crude oil in the long run"

That's code speak for "might encourage people to switch to alternative fuels."

The oil the Saudi's have 'in spare' is sour, sulfury crude. We already knew that, and it's the open market that sets the prices of oil, so I don't know what Bush expects to accomplish. Has he lost his faith in 'free trade' and Kapitalism?

[blueknight]

2. i think thats one of the reasons

the saudis are keeping the oil prices so high, they know the alternative fuels are just around the corner, and their cash cow is going to go dry. that is,if we ever had enough leadership in this country to pursue it.

[htuttle]

5. Entirely possible

The acknowledgement of peak production may have other effects, too. New refinery construction would likely be discouraged, for example. Refineries are very expensive and take a long time to pay off.

If you think about it, though, this is how it's all supposed to work. For years we've heard that various alternative fuels weren't economically competitive while petroleum was so cheap. Soon, standard biodiesel may be as cheap or cheaper than petroleum diesel fuel, leading people to begin to switch to biodiesel, thus leading to an increase in biodiesel production as demand rises, and so on. That's how capitalism is supposed to work, right?

But, as will become more apparent over the coming years, it was never about capitalism as an ideology with most of the powers that be. It was always about protecting their own economic fiefdoms, so watch as the Bush administration spends more and more of our tax dollars in an attempt to bring down the price of petroleum (such as attempting to use military force to control production, making backroom deals with despots, subsidizing the oil industry even more, and using the power of the federal government to discourage competing fuels) in a King Canute-like effort to hold back the tides of economic change.

[hatrack]

8. "My grandfather rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies a jet plane . .

. . . his son will ride a camel."

Saudi proverb

[marc_the_dem]

10. right on

you hit the nail on the head....

[ixion]

3. coming from a man who could not successfully run an oil company

that statement has little to no credibility.

Oh, that's right, that SOP for BushCo. Sorry, what was I thinking?

[ClintonTyree]

4. Is this the "jawboning" we've all heard about?

Could this be it? Is bush going to "jawbone" the Saudis like he said he was going to do before the first stolen election? "Jawboning", sounds an awful lot like an "oral" kind of thing. :shrug: What the hell, he's been blowing them his entire life for one reason or another, why stop now?
He can "jawbone" all he wants. The fact is the Saudis don't HAVE any extra capacity.
Maybe bush is going to read the prince the riot act on getting "freedom on the march" in Saudi Arabia. They're still one of the most repressive dictatorships on the planet. And we all know, bush will have nothing to do with that. :eyes: I imagine he'll demand free and open elections with women included in the process. :rofl: Sometimes I just crack myself up.

[rman]

6. Not pumping flat out - yet

(if it's true at all)
By the time they do pump flat out, it's to late. It means production cannot be increased further to deal with rising demand. That's when the peak is, and it's all down hill from there.
If anyone wants to do anything to prevent the subsequent crisis, i'd be prudent to do so *before* SA is pumping flat out. But if they aren't doing so already it's just a matter of years untill they will, and that's not enough time to take any serious preventative measures (aside from starting oil wars under the pretence of spreading democracy).

[Career Prole]

7. "I'm tellin' ya, you guys, y'all better open up the spigots

If y'all don't, it’ll affect your ability to sell crude oil!

Here's hoping hybrid sales take off like a rocket!

[PurityOfEssence]

9. I say so, so it's true.

Don't mess me up with your "facts". I said what I said, and the fact that I won in a landslide proves that the American people know I'm right. Shut up, peon.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. I betcha Poppy's gunna be there on the pig farm when Abdullah

swishes in with his robes and sun glasses ......

[Boo Boo]

12. Well I guess Dirty Dick did

meet with his Saudi friends the other day. But this strikes me as posing on the Bushies part. A public relations ploy. I thought I read somewhere that refinery capacity was being (at least partially) blamed for high gas prices (isn't it always), and that US monetary policy was also contributing to the high prices for Oil, copper, etc.

Furthermore, it seems to me that increased production is not going to provide short term relief. A drop in the price per barrel won't effect Oil that has already been pumped, sold, and is currently sailing around the seas somewhere, or waiting to be refined. It takes a while for price fluctuations to work their way through the system. My guess is that we still aren't feeling the worst of the current spike.