Two answers.
The media, as I noted earlier, remains disappointed that oil prices didn’t shoot up. So do the WW3 influencers who were promising us that oil prices would crush the economy.
Didn’t happen. Why not?
One answer is that the oil markets weren’t on Twitter. The smart money was that it would be a short war and American involvement would be even shorter. Every influencer pretending otherwise was not very bright or very malicious. And those pretending that their tweets changed everything would have to explain why not much happened with oil prices.
A second answer though is that despite public condemnations, the Saudis had deliberately worked to protect oil prices early on to make this possible.
Taffy says
Reason number 2 is the accurate one. The Saudis leading the OPEC nations increased their output so as to maintain a stable market.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Saudi Arabia is not doing us a favor. It simply calculates that if the price of oilgoes too high, there will be more investments in nuclear and solar energy, and they want to make sure that they are able to sell every last barrel of oil under Arabia Deserta.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Not sure what the Saudis believe in the future of energy, w/ their Neom city w/ “zero carbon” objectives. In the case of nuclear, there is a shortage of supply of fissile materials (Uranium, Thorium, Plutonium) in the world: it’s just slightly less rare than rare earth minerals. In case of solar, it is good at addressing differentials, such as complementing commercial (ie coal powered) energy during peak demand times such as increased AC loads on particularly hot days. But they are seriously looking at migrating their economy out of a complete dependence on oil, but educating their citizenry out of islamic texts and into modern science & technology would be a big & necessary part of it
Big Boy Caprice says
Mr. Fitzgerald,
Somewhere I read that China was nowhere to be seen, because Xi Jin Ping was experiencing some sort of uprising against him. This was drowned out by events in Iran and The Hague, however, so we don’t know the nitty gritty. I would therefore seriously appreciate it if you could explore this topic, even though it is slightly off-topic for this site.
Kind regards,
Big Boy Caprice
Wellington says
Many dynamics here but one of them is that the media in America, as with the Democratic Party in America (but I largely repeat myself), can only advance and prosper when bad things happen to America. Such as the price of oil going up and not down. And the fact that the Saudis helped America in this recent give and take between Israel and Iran more than the American media and the Democratic Party have is enormously dispositive of the fact that America’s chief problem is not any enemy without but rather enemies within.
Conclude accordingly.
Westman says
Yes, within. Systematic destruction of the family, constant attack on the President, universities creating socialists and communists, media running down the nation, boys are girls, giving the nation to aggressive economic immigrants, throwing Israel to the wolves, and killing free speech are just a few of the enemy-within’s destructive actions.
David M says
The main reason is that Iran luckily didn’t block the Straight of Hormuz, or attack the American ships. It would have gone up if they had done that, or still do it. Their Parliament voted to do it. They have shown a bit of discretion, which is good for everyone, hopefully they keep doing it because they are outmatched if they go to full war.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
About blocking the Straits of Hormuz, I’m not sure whether the Iranian “navy” is capable or not of it, but Beijing did warn Teheran over the weekend not to do it, since they don’t want their own oil supplies being disrupted. When you have a weak navy (their dinghies are totally inadequate for the purpose), you need your airforce to enforce such a blockade. Which would be an issue given that Israel had completely taken out the Iranian air force
One more way the theocratic regime was totally worthless even in terms of strategic planning. Let’s imagine that I was the Iranian government and my only source of foreign income was oil sales to China. I’d have built gas/oil pipelines from Mashhad to Kashgar, through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and shipped as much of my energy there. I’d also have had more shipping terminals at different points in the country bordering neighbors, like Mashhad, Chabahar, Tabriz, to different transit countries, like Turkey (or Armenia/Georgia), Uzbekistan/Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. I’d certainly not have left it all on Kharg island, which if taken out, would have been 90% of my revenue
David M says
I was thinking that too, China stopped Iran from blocking it. As for how Iran could do it, it wouldn’t be too hard. The easiest way for them to block it would be to sink their own ships right where other ships want to sail, it is pretty narrow. Anyway, luckily they haven’t done it yet.