The general oil market and the American oil policy

Since the Industrial Revolution, energy is an international concern: one fifth of international trade of goods is the supply in energy of the companies. At the beginning of the century, oil became the most important energy source. Today, oil represents the most important share of the energy market. Indeed, it covers 40% of the world-wide primary energy offer. That’s why, oil is considered as a “strategic” raw material. There is an important political dimension in the international oil relationship which leads to a more geopolitical vision of the international energy market than an economical vision. The oil issue being very political reached the highest point during the 1970’s and the energy crisis. The most dramatic episode was the “Oil revolution” organized by the OPEC. After this crisis, the oil question appeared to be a national and international security stake. For the first time, energy stake divided the international political space between “friend and enemy”. Whereas, some recommended military intervention against the country members of the OPEC, industrialized countries tried to react in creating the International Energy Agency. IEA was essentially a discussion and negotiation space between the states during in the elaboration of energy politics.

[...] The market began more flexible, the number of oil producing countries increased and the competition reinforced considerably. In this context, energy security is not the main objective of most of the countries and particularly not the United States. Energy interdependence between countries must be analyzed not only as a fact but also as a dynamic, energy relationships are very complex and constantly changing (the price of the oil on financial markets). Today, markets are more competitive because there is a possibility of conciliation between different types of energy and between suppliers. [...]

[...] If Iran burns, or if neighbouring Iraq descends further into anarchy, expect scattered strikes against oil installations, ports and power plants the world over. There will be more trouble in Nigeria and Ecuador. Hotspots will get hotter with conflicts spreading far and wide. With so much happening, renewed conflict in little-known Chad - among the five poorest nations in the world but one with a billion in crude reserves - may not blip on our media radar. The Ides of March have passed and it has left us with bad omens for the coming months. [...]

[...] The capacity to be projected quickly and massively forces in the Persian one was well a corollary of the liberal orientation given to the American oil policy by the Reagan administration: the choice of the recourse to the market is accompanied by policies of security, including soldiers, of the world oil market. The "secularization" of Saudi Arabia pursued, but the mean threat evolved/moved with the world and regional strategic context: Soviet in the spirit of the American strategists having worked out the "Carter Doctrine", it became Iranian with the Islamic revolution, then Iraqi. [...]

[...] III - The military dimension of the oil world security The maintenance of the strategic petroleum reserve is only one of the two components of the American policy of the world oil market security. The military dimension being the second, it covers primarily two actions: to make the sea routes safe on the one hand, taking care of Saudi Arabia’s homeland security on the other hand The security of oil exchanges around the world The maintenance of the strategic petroleum reserves only one of its two components of the American policy to the world oil market security. [...]

[...] If Iraq's oil and its pipelines can energize the current sectarian war, couldn't that be replicated in places simmering with ethnic and social tensions? Expect authoritarian governments to manufacture terrorism for the perpetuation of power. If you regard the USA PATRIOT Act as draconian, you haven't seen the world yet! Any bomb anywhere can be pinned on "terrorists" and sifting the real from the manufactured would be next to impossible with censorship laws established to prevent the transmission of coded communications. [...]