Washington, OPEC, and Hubris

Despite a full-press pressure campaign by the West, OPEC cut their production by twice as much as expected. What I find interesting is the reaction in Washington.
They started with tapping the strategic reserves. It's a logical reaction, except for the fact that the reserves are already at its lowest levels since 1984. Then things went off the rails.

For now, the White House is pledging to work with Congress on a bill to allow the U.S. to sue oil cartels for antitrust violations, a step that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have threatened before but which the Biden administration has been wary of taking.
...The so-called NOPEC bill — No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels — would change antitrust laws to allow the Justice Department to sue nations that restrain trade in oil, natural gas or any petroleum product.

This is absolutely laughable. A nation that won't enforce it's own anti-trust laws, especially when it comes to the energy sector, is going to apply those anti-trust laws overseas??
Of course Washington does still have options. For starters, they could relax sanctions on Venezuela.

The White House is looking at relaxing some sanctions on Venezuela so that Chevron can pump more oil there, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the proposal.

There you go. A logical step.
Except for just four days later this came out.

(Reuters) - The United States has no plans to change its Venezuela sanctions policy "without constructive steps" from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to restore democracy, White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Wednesday.

Venezuela is a no go. In fact, just the act of reopening the border with Venezuela, got the government of Colombia in hot water.

There is another option. They could relax sanctions on Iran.
Except that just last week this happened.

The Biden administration has announced a new round of sanctions against Iran, vowing to impose financial penalties on a “regular basis” in an effort to “severely restrict” Iranian oil and petrochemical exports.

The measures announced on Thursday target several firms and “front companies” based in China, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and India that the United States accuses of involvement in the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.

Then, just to prove how serious the Biden Administration was toward keeping Iranian oil off the market, they imposed sanctions on Chinese companies and Indian companies which have been importing that oil.

Don't feel sorry for the Biden Administration for their inability to bring down the price of energy, when they are actively trying to keep that energy from reaching the market.
Speaking of keeping energy off the markets, let's talk about the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which were blown up last week. Do you know who hasn't been allowed to inspect the pipelines? The people that actually own the pipelines.

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should take heed to this with regards to future oil prices!

Troops from various units of the Yemeni armed forces participate in a massive military parade in the capital Sana’a, on September 21, 2022, to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the September 21 Revolution.

The Yemeni defense minister says the country’s future retaliatory strikes would target areas beyond Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), warning the Saudi-led coalition against any new act of aggression against the war-wracked country after a truce was violated.

“We will never hesitate to bombard very sensitive and important facilities, and we will include them in the list of our future targets.

“The designated targets will not be constrained to areas within the borders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE; and could be situated in regions much beyond these two countries,” Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network quoted Major General Mohammad al-Atifi as saying on Thursday.

He added, “We once again warn the regional countries which support the coalition of aggression that we will employ surprising tactical and strategic methods during the war.”

The Yemeni defense minister also emphasized that there is no obstacle in employment of homegrown ballistic missiles and combat drones to launch retaliatory strikes against enemies.

“We will make the aggressors scream in pain. We won’t pay any attention to their cries for help then. We have mobilized our armed forces for a strategic military decision. Enemies are strongly advised not to test our mettle,” Atifi pointed out.

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with oil output from OPEC is to withhold arms shipments to Saudi Arabia.
Wow! That's mean! Not sure the weapons contractors are going to like that tho.
Bunch of murderous morons anyway.

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@QMS

withhold arms shipments to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis might have to stop committing genocide in Yemen.

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