Thread: Saudis offer Russia secret oil deal if it drops Syria

Saudis offer Russia secret oil deal if it drops Syria

Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.

OPEC raised production by 400,000 barrels per day to 29.7m Photo: AP

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
12:00PM BST 27 Aug 2013

The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warship poised for missile strikes in Syria. Iran has threatened to retaliate.

The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $112 a barrel. “We are only one incident away from a serious oil spike. The market is a lot tighter than people think,” said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review.

Leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.

Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria. “Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,” he said at the four-hour meeting with Mr Putin. They met at Mr Putin’s dacha outside Moscow three weeks ago.

“We understand Russia’s great interest in the oil and gas in the Mediterranean from Israel to Cyprus. And we understand the importance of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing with that. We can cooperate in this area,” he said, purporting to speak with the full backing of the US.

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The talks appear to offer an alliance between the OPEC cartel and Russia, which together produce over 40m barrels a day of oil, 45pc of global output. Such a move would alter the strategic landscape.

The details of the talks were first leaked to the Russian press. A more detailed version has since appeared in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, which has Hezbollah links and is hostile to the Saudis.

As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

President Putin has long been pushing for a global gas cartel, issuing the `Moscow Declaration’ last to month “defend suppliers and resist unfair pressure”. This would entail beefing up the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), a talking shop.
Mr Skrebowski said it is unclear what the Saudis can really offer the Russians on gas, beyond using leverage over Qatar and others to cut output of liquefied natural gas (LGN). “The Qataris are not going to obey Saudi orders,” he said.

Saudi Arabia could help boost oil prices by restricting its own supply. This would be a shot in the arm for Russia, which is near recession and relies on an oil price near $100 to fund the budget.

But it would be a dangerous strategy for the Saudis if it pushed prices to levels that endangered the world’s fragile economic recovery. Crude oil stocks in the US have already fallen sharply this year. Goldman Sachs said the “surplus cushion” in global stocks built up since 2008 has been completely eliminated.

Mr Skrebowski said trouble is brewing in a string of key supply states. “Libya is reverting to war lordism. Nigerian is drifting into a bandit state with steady loss of output. And Iraq is going back to the sort of Sunni-Shia civil war we saw in 2006-2007,” he said.

The Putin-Bandar meeting was stormy, replete with warnings of a “dramatic turn” in Syria. Mr Putin was unmoved by the Saudi offer, though western pressure has escalated since then. “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters,” he said, referring to footage showing a Jihadist rebel eating the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier.

Prince Bandar in turn warned that there can be “no escape from the military option” if Russia declines the olive branch. Events are unfolding exactly as he foretold.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...ops-Syria.html

War Within 72 Hours: “The World Understands that the American People Are Being Zombified”

Mac Slavo
August 30th, 2013
SHTFplan.com
Comments ( 58 )
Read by 4,540 people

What exactly is President Obama doing and why all the delays? Is he looking for a way out, in essence telling the Syrians and Russians we are going to strike, but don’t worry, we aren’t going to go after anything important in the hopes that nothing else will come of it?

Our Commander-in-Chief has not only shown his incompetence in geo-political matters, but has, as Greg Mannarino notes in the commentary below, turned the United States into the laughing stock of the world.

All signs suggest that the President of the United States has no idea what is really going on in the world. And after Russian troops started piling off ships into Syria, and Vladimir Putin mobilized his Navy and reportedly threatened a counter-strike on Saudi Arabia, Obama may have realized that he is in way over his head, and that he has brought the world to the brink of global conflict.
Nonetheless, out of desperation and to save face, the distinct possibility of confrontation remains, and will more than likely be initiated within the next 72 hours.

(Video commentary follows excerpts)

What is really going on here?

Outlining detail for detail what is going to unfold.
…
What’s really going on here people… the President, Kerry, all of them, they’re not talking to the American people about this.

They’re talking to Russia, they’re talking to China, to Syria, to Iran…

understand, President Obama is fearful of where this may go.

So, he’s laying out the groundwork being as precise as possible… he’s giving the Syrian regime, the Syria military all the time they need to move whatever weapons and equipment they may have from high priority targets.
…
It’s a joke. It’s being broadcast with such detail you really have to ask yourself, “what is really going on here?”

It’s a shame what has happened to our country. we’ve become the laughing stock – the laughing stock of the world.

Our economy is absolutely in shambles. We understand this.

The world understands that the American people are being zombified and are being completely lied to and misled at every single corner.

The American people are on a need-to-know basis, and based on Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech earlier today, we don’t need to know:

Via Truthstream Media

What do we know?

“And I believe, as President Obama does, that it is also important to discuss this directly with the American people. That’s our responsibility: to talk with the citizens who have entrusted all of us in the administration and the Congress with responsibility for their security.”

Later

“But still, in order to protect sources and methods, some of what we know will only be released to members of Congress, the representatives of the American people. That means that some things we do know, we can’t talk about publicly.“

And still later

“So that is what we know. That’s what the leaders of Congress now know.And that’s what the American people need to know.”

Translation: You, the American People, are on a ‘need-to-know’ basis and you do not need to know. Trust us. We’re the government.

The fate of the world is in the hands of sociopaths.If you’re betting on a peaceful resolution to all this, then you are entrusting your life to people who have done nothing but shifted blame, obfuscated facts, and lied to achieve their long-term globalist agenda.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post


http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-new...ified_08302013

KING FAUD SPEAKS


"I summon my blue-eyed slaves anytime it pleases me. I command the Americans to send me their bravest soldiers to die for me. Anytime I clap my hands a stupid genie called the American ambassador appears to do my bidding. When the Americans die in my service their bodies are frozen in metal boxes by the US Embassy and American airplanes carry them away, as if they never existed. Truly, America is my favorite slave."

King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, Jeddeh 1993

http://www.sauduction.com/issues/07

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

KING FAUD SPEAKS


"I summon my blue-eyed slaves anytime it pleases me. I command the Americans to send me their bravest soldiers to die for me. Anytime I clap my hands a stupid genie called the American ambassador appears to do my bidding. When the Americans die in my service their bodies are frozen in metal boxes by the US Embassy and American airplanes carry them away, as if they never existed. Truly, America is my favorite slave."

King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, Jeddeh 1993

http://www.sauduction.com/issues/07

American shale is his biggest enemy, it will make all of them irrelevant

As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

A majority of the September 11th 2001 Muslim Extremists were also from Saudi Arabia..... this is starting to feel like a trend out of Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar