The US House Judiciary Committee passed a bill on Thursday that would allow the Justice Department to sue members of OPEC for manipulating the oil market.
According to Max Keiser, “this little alliance [between OPEC and the US – Ed.] has been going strong since the 1970s,” as the quid pro quo was that the US would buy Saudi oil and the Saudis would buy US debt.
“Of course, the energy industry is capital intensive, and all of the banks and energy companies in America generate a lot of debt and they needed some place to park it. And they parked it in the Saudi empire and returned for the oil.”
Max adds: “So, this symbiotic relationship is apparently falling apart.”
According to Stacy Herbert, multinationals like Exxon Mobil are concerned about their assets in places like Nigeria, which is part of OPEC. This is the sort of conflict we see starting to erupt at this period of transition of empires and superpowers, she explains.
“The fact is that Saudi Arabia is OPEC, they don’t really need those other nations to raise or lower, reduce supply. Most of their oil is now going to China, not to the US or other markets. So, that relationship is becoming more important,” Stacy says.
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