While the oil and gas stock markets told sharply different stories, the pundits tried to blame Iran and not the shortage in supply for higher oil and gas prices. Furthermore, they connected the story of oil and gas to Iran's civilian nuclear industry, confusing the American and European public as to the real causes for paying higher prices at the gas stations.
.
Goldman Sachs in a current research note writes that OPEC spare capacity is "approaching dangerously low levels" and this condition is reaching dominance "just as world economic growth is beginning to strengthen." Such a situation would make the world oil market increasingly vulnerable to sharp price hikes in 2012.
Could it be that in the wake of US imposition of the latest sanctions on Iran, the Saudi Arabian assurances that it possesses the spare capacity to make up for the shortfalls was simply a bluff whose function was to make the task of passing the Congressional resolutions 'a walk in the park'. The path of least resistance for prices is still to the upside", says Barclay's Capital.
Pursuing its own strategic and geopolitical interests, the US pressured the European countries, especially Portugal, Spain and Greece to impose sanctions on their importation of Iranian crude oil. To show that the US, the United Kingdom and France are not the only countries that can carry out pre-emptive strikes, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided pre-emptively to shut down its oil export to the most aggressive imperialist countries behind the US : Britain and France.
To deceive the European and American public, US and British publications began immediately spreading false data with regards to world oil supply and deliberately underestimated world oil consumption.
.
.
