Wann gehts gegen Saudi-Arabien los?

Geschrieben von JoeKaiser am 01. Oktober 2004 18:09:17:

Als Antwort auf: Nachrichten 1.10.2004 (owT) geschrieben von JoeKaiser am 01. Oktober 2004 18:04:21:

Hallo,

die USA haben ihre Beziehungen zu den Saudis drastisch abgekühlt, so wurden die vor wenigen Jahren für viele Milliarden gebauten US-Stützpunkte inzwischen alle geräumt (falls ich mich nicht irre), nun lese ich das die Saudis ihr Öl an die Chinesen verkaufen anstatt den USA, ich frage mich was passieren wird wenn die Saudis und Chinesen sich mal einigen sollten daß sie für die Öl-Geschäfte kein grün bedrucktes Papier verwenden wollen?????
Da wird es noch ganz stark rappeln...

Washington, DC, Sep. 16 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia, long the largest supplier of oil to the United States, has cut U.S. sales dramatically and may soon no longer be among the top five largest U.S. suppliers.

The Saudi kingdom's new largest customer is China.

"Saudi sales to the U.S. have fallen off the table," James Placke, a senior associate at Cambridge Energy Research Associates and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, said Thursday.

Saudi oil sales to the United States peaked in 2002 at 1.7 million barrels per day but had fallen to 1.1 million barrels per day in May, the last month for which U.S. Department of Energy figures are available, Placke said at a Washington forum.

Placke, who has monitored Saudi oil sales for decades, said Saudi Arabia's traditional large share of the U.S. oil market has been a function of the country's special close relationship with the United States -- a tie that may be weakening.

"Saudi Arabia has been at the top for several decades, and that's by design. To the Saudi establishment, that position was an important element in maintaining what was known as the 'strategic relationship,'" Placke said. He said the Saudis used subtle methods that are no longer in place to lower the prices of their oil for U.S. customers and increase their market share in the United States.

Placke said Saudi Arabia's turn away from the U.S. market began at the end of 2002 as the United States was preparing to go to war in Iraq.

"I think, while there was what has generally been described as a sufficient degree of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States, (the invasion of Iraq) clearly was not in tune with Saudi Arabia or really anyone else in the Arab world for that matter," Placke said.

"I think what we're seeing is not punishment or retribution, but I think it's a slow recognition by the Saudi side that the 'special relationship' isn't so special anymore," he added.

Thomas Lippman, an adjunct scholar and oil expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, stressed that the reduction in Saudi oil sales to the United States does not threaten the supply of oil to the United States.

"It is absolutely true that oil has no nationality," Lippman said. "It's also true that the record shows that even states or state producers in countries with which we have terrible relations will continue to sell oil to us because they need the money. It was true in Libya, it was true in Iran."....




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