Oil companies - Comparison with De Beers

Article on De Beers and market manipulation- link

Up until around a year ago I was obsessed with Peak Oil theories. I had started a 'survival library' of books that had in them the techniques and skills needed to survive off the grid without any oil based products. I would imagine the day when I would be able to start the school that would save the ignorant sheeple in my countryside town. After losing faith in the government and business following the Iraq war I was more than willing to accept that in a short sighted greedy century our planet had been pillaged of one of its most valuable resources and that future generations would pay the price of a collapsed industrialised civilisation.

The forums I inhabited were filled with the 'End is nigh'-placard wearing doomers I'm sure you're all familiar with, and every dollar increase on a barrel of sweet-light crude would spark a mexican wave of cries. "This is it!" "It's the peak!" "I predict total meltdown within two months!" "Oh god I wish I'd finished my soya-powered helicopter!". All very (?melo-)dramatic.

I guess I got bored of waiting, because nothing seemed to be changing much. Sure, BP had a new green logo, and the irony wasn't lost on me. Petrol went up a couple of pence a litre, lorry drivers whinged. Iraq didn't really start chugging oil out with any urgency, but they sure used up a load in those tanks. The Euro-storing 'axis of evil' didnt catch on and the petrodollar didn't collapse. Once I'd got bored of Kunstlers blog I switched off entirely. Suddenly the one man I had been sure was wrong all along seemed like he might be on to something. Al Jones with his 'Peak Oil theory is a Big Oil conspiracy!' suddenly felt worth thinking about.

When I thought about it I did see that most of the proponents of peak oil were the sort of people at any other time you could happily imagine working for the CFR or attending bilderberg meetings, aspecially Matt Simmons. I started to wonder if we hadn't been doing Big Oil's promotional work for them, a new clever type of market control where you make it look like a conspiracy theory has flowered into an accepted hypothesis by leaking scrap by scrap and letting forums like this piece it into a rational sounding theory.

I've gone from being interested, to convinced, to ambiguous on the whole topic. However it appears today I rejoin the fold!

My question, as the title suggests, is what comparisons can be seen between de Beers' manipulation of the diamond market and the current oil situation. Obviously there are major differences. Oil is combustible, diamonds are nigh on invincible. Oil is constantly needed in vast quantities, diamonds are a luxury. But in terms of controlling both demand and supply, and creating an artificial shortage to keep the price hyperinflated and reap in the profits, I wonder if we could all be the unwitting duped minions of some of the richest and powerful people in the world. After all, they are the ones who hold the real details of what is left, and I dont see them worrying like us.

Wow, excellent and thoughtful post. I don't know what to think about peak oil, but I wouldn't be surprised if peak ouil was a conspiracy. But your comparison to De Beers is brilliant. DB has regulated the price of diamonds for over a hundred years. The markup is unbelievable and the industry is very tightly controlled by De Beers. At the diamond market, if merchants show up but don't buy enough you won't be invited back and there's nowhere else to go i.e. the merchant is no longer a diamond merchant.

I'm sure the oil industry is tightly controlled as well. Another thing is that De Beers has caused untold suffering in Africa. The oil companies have done some very shady things as well. Both oil and diamond companies come in to a country, strip it of its resources, pocket the money with nothing going towards the people's country and then they move on to the next one.

They are both robber barons. They value the resource more than human lives and have no regard for the people who are doing the actual work.

An excellent analogy, and one I’ve made before myself when talking to my father in law about the oil industry. The oil companies aren’t building new refineries for the same reason DeBeers isn’t digging any new diamond mines. Personally, the only diamonds I’ve ever owned have been on the end of a drill bit. I find jewelry to be a ridiculous vanity.

It’s not just massive profits that are the goal here though, it’s also about control, and goes right along with the ever tightening controls on food, water, guns, land and even religious beliefs. Global control over every aspect of peoples lives is the goal; a neo-feudal system with us as the serfs and the elite as the royalty.

www.questionsquestions.net...

educate-yourself.org...

www.reformation.org...



[edit on 2-3-2007 by resistor]

Nice articles, cheers.

Not even remotely convinced about the abiotic theory I have to say.

My current feeling around Peak Oil is that we're only able to guess at what's left, as they are all tightly kept secrets, and there's sod all I can do about the depletion rate anyway.

The only important thing is, is it actually necessary for me to immediately start a self sustaining 'energy-neutal' community full of people with traditional skills in the use of non-industrial materials and methods. And even if I did, would I be able to defend it from the rampaging starving hordes?

All these 'end is nigh'ers, be they talking about WWIII, global warming, superbugs, overpopulation etc seem to have a few things in common:

- They don't like what industrialised society is doing to the world
- They have a rose-tinted view of 'the old ways'
- They advocate a return to traditional living, but seem uncompelled to lead by example, and seem to have forgotten about militaries
- OR they advocate globalised strategies of environmental management, and seem to have forgotten about militaries


I don't have any money and haven't even finished my degree yet, so I think that's probably the best bet for now!

Peace

Originally posted by Giordano Bruno

I guess I got bored of waiting, because nothing seemed to be changing much.

My question, as the title suggests, is what comparisons can be seen between de Beers' manipulation of the diamond market and the current oil situation. Obviously there are major differences.

Your premise here as far as the comparison to the Diamond companys is a good one. I just dont think you and many of the other posters here are wont to take it far enough. You stop at all the price gouging ..."Im a Victim" type posts.

YOu need to think outside the blocks a bit further to the merchandizing part of the thinking. This requires some knowlege of history and this is the problem. History is often such a clouded, obscured field. Much of it is glossed over.

When you view the field or topic as one of competition it changes ones thinking a bit. Not competition from other countrys per se but from other companys operating behind the countrys. The countrys are actually fronts for these companys.

While I dont like to use movies or videos as a method of explaining real life situations the video "Blood Diamond" is a good one for those who can think past all the violence and political drama or dogma which is the bullk of the movie.

The key in understanding and changing your thinking is the last scene in the movie where they are taking the particular diamond which is the crux of the movie and hiding or storing it in a vault to keep it off the market and not depress prices.

This is the crux of the oil buisness. I have known for years now that there is acatually a surplus of oil. Oil is being discovered in places all over the world. The problem is controlling the market and keeping the oil out of the hands of the public. At the same time you must squash unwanted competition. You must be able to control both sides of the market..both production and consumption.

In the movie "Blood Diamond" The diamond companys did not care that war was taking place but operated in spite of the war to keep the diamonds off the market. What happened to the people involved or caught up in these wars did not matter. The important thing was what was happening to the Supply of Diamonds.
War was just a cover behind which to continue controlling the supply of diamonds. Those diamonds gained by war were stored and kept off the market.

So the question arises ..how do you keep oil of fthe market and at the same time keep competitors out who would sell or use the oil as a independent operator...hence threatening your economic/political base.

The answer is war. War is the tool used by certain companys to limite competition. Keep competitors out and the resources off the market. The instability generated is the tool necessary to keep competiting companys out of the war area. This is what happened in Vietnam and when it was over a Communist Government was put in place to further gaurantee that the country would remain in storage..inert ..no progress outside of what is authorized by the ruling company operating behind the scenes. These are private holdings kept off the market. Communism gaurantees that no progress will take place economically and at the same time gaurantees that competitors will remain out of country.

The more radical Islamic governments will gaurantee the same result. No progress and competiting companys will not go in to invest. The more radical governments will replace communism as this tool to keep the diamonds in the safe. The country is in effect put in storage.
Learn how to spot the technique of how to put a whole country into storage.

While the war is taking place ..what is happening behind the scenes is that arrangements are being made to keep the country in storage..and the resources off the market. These arrangements are not seen by the general public.

Saddam Husseins crime was not WMDs per se...it was operating as a independent and selling oil through another unauthorized market ...the UN Food for Oil program. He sold to much oil and kept the prices depressed.
No independents allowed in this market. Very similar to the drug market...or as stated the Diamond market.

Every time the oil looked like it was going to flow in Iraq...the pipelines and facilitys were destroyed. Iraqi oil would gaurantee lower prices in this country. Yet it is obviously not flowing.

Our troops are in Iraq to gaurantee the oil will not flow and that the oil will stay out of the hands of competitors who will, if they get the Iraqi oil, stop buying from more expensive sources...ie..competitors.

Both the Islamics and the West are on the puppet strings here at great cost in thier finest blood. This is not a view one will hear on the nightly news..no matter how much they declare they are "looking out for you."

Simple common sense will clear it up for most people not on the emotional treadmill.

How to keep a resource off the market and at the same time out of the hands of competitors is the connection to the diamond market.

War is the tool to do this and it can be kept up for years and years with a public groomed on a television education.
We are in Iraq to make sure the oil does not flow...anywhere.. and the country is put in storage while we build certain infrastructure to make sure the oil does not flow till authorized. This is precisely what happened in Vietnam. Oil was discovered there too. We brought Vietnam into the 20th Century at public expense and then said to the communists...here fellows ..have it all. The country was then put in storage. You can see this fingerprint happening over again only in Islamic guise in Iraq and the Middle East. It will not stop with Iraq. I believe more of the Middle East is slated to go into storage with the passage of time. In the safe with all the diamonds.

Thanks,
Orangetom

^
Excellent and interesting post ot, but I have to disagree with your idea that the Middle East is slated to be put into storage. It seems to me that the Middle East has been made the well known storage house of the worlds oil in the minds of the average Joe, while the many other sources around the world are the ones in storage. I think that the currently unfolding global conflict is the reason why. It fit’s the goals of the globalists to have people think that their high standard of living is dependant on keeping the oil flowing from the Middle East. From the chaos of the coming conflict they will form the order of a global government.

I don't believe there is a shortage to supply, honestly there may be too much oil to be drilled. But mind you, oil straight out of the ground is almost completely worthless in its natural state. Sure you can burn it as is, but its too dirty to use for anything. So figuring out how to refine it basically becomes a "barrier to entry", so very few players can actually occupy that space. Sure the Russians have lots of oil, but they need the West's know how to get at it.

On the History channel, they did a story on Rockefeller and the company he created Standard Oil. The most notable thing that Rockefeller figured out was, it was more important to own the refinement capacity as opposed to owning the most oilfields. He even bought the railroads that lead to his refineries, and charged his competitors high fees to transport their oil to his refinery where he charged them again to refine it. He was making money at his competitors expense. And since he owned the railroad from his drilling operations to his refinery, he was basically getting free shipping.
Plus he could make his competitors wait on delivery as he moved all his stuff first. Time is money you know. This guy had it all figured out.

In the case of the middle east, they hurt the US with the embargo in the 70's, then they changed tactics and went for a glut in the 80's and hurt Big Oil. Since they are unpredictable players, the best action is to remove them from the game, and what do you do, drain off what they have as in the case of Saudi Arabia or close them off from major world markets like with Iraq.

I of course believe that the current "shortage" of gasoline is artificial. Enough refineries aren't keeping up with demand AND we're having utterly idiotic wars in the middle east that prevent some of the best oil fields in the world from being properly exploited! I once read that given proper exploitation, Iraq could exceed even Saudi Arabia in oil production!

www.iraqupdates.com...

I have come to realize that like diamonds, someone is controlling the supply and the demand. They told us the world would be out of oil by 1990 and then they found Iraq's huge supply. They like to speed up and slow down production to influence the price. They say that natural disasters raise the price of oil and we find that the effect is minimal.