Oil Reserves

Gale A. Norton is the U.S. secretary of the interior America is ignoring the light on the dashboard when it comes to energy. We are in denial. We think that simply because we've always had abundant energy - except in the 1970s, when we were stuck in gas lines - we always will. Americans were surprised when growing world demand for energy pushed the price of oil to record levels last summer and when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita drove gas above $3.60 a gallon in some places.

Is this a grand crusade, or a grudge match? Is this about securing world peace, or grabbing the oil fields? Those who support a "regime change" in Iraq argue that President Bush's motives are pure. Last week, while signing the congressional war resolution, he declared that America's goal is to "finally remove a real threat to world peace" and "help Iraqi citizens find the blessings of liberty. " But within the large pool of skeptics - 42 percent of Americans oppose invasion by U.S. ground troops, according to the latest Newsweek poll - there is a nagging suspicion that Bush's motives for toppling Saddam Hussein are far more personal, that what he really wants is to avenge his father and open the Iraqi oil reserves to his friends.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which in January said it had misled investors on the size of its oil and gas reserves, said yesterday that it would spend $45 billion over three years on finding new oil reserves and other projects. But the announcement prompted the biggest decline in its shares in eight months as investors bet the new outlay would prevent the firm from continuing a stock buyback program. Shell said that it planned $10 billion to $12 billion of asset sales to raise cash during the period and that it might make acquisitions as needed.

For oil companies and governments in the United States and around the world, there is more at stake in Iraq than weapons of mass destruction. There is oil. Iraq has the world's second-largest oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia. Toppling Saddam Hussein could restore Iraq as an influential player in the world oil market. Development of Iraq's vast oil reserves, which has been largely suspended during two decades of war and U.N. sanctions, could push down global oil prices and produce a windfall for oil companies that win the exploration and development contracts.

Unlike that old adage that those who claim to remember the '60s weren't really there, those who remember the '70s remember a cold and brutal time of gas rationing, heating oil shortages, a new villain called OPEC, and lots of used Cadillacs for sale. Cheap. Get ready for another installment of that '70s show. As prices for both natural gas and heating oil are forecast to rise 55 percent over the previous winter,OPEC is once again being called the anti-Christ, and coming soon to a used-car lot near you will be a few thousand used SUVs.

CAMP DAVID, Md. - Confronting an economic crisis that threatens them all, President Obama and leaders of other world powers on Saturday declared that their governments must both spark growth and cut the debt that has crippled the European continent and put investors worldwide on edge. "There's now an emerging consensus that more must be done to promote growth and job creation right now," Obama proclaimed after hosting unprecedented economic talks at Camp David, his mountaintop retreat.

What happens when the oil runs out? It is a nagging question that is the fodder for discussion at family dinners in the Persian Gulf and at newly formed think tanks. The question, however, is not merely academic: Oil reserves in some of the gulf's sheikdoms are within a generation or two of running dry. If these young nations carved out of the desert sands by the wealth of oil are to survive, they must diversify their economies. "We once owned little more than our camels," says Abdulla Karim, a Saudi-born academic with Institute for Futuristics, a think tank based in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel by midday today in London following President George Bush's decision to sell U.S. oil reserves. However, the drop took place during very light trading, brokers said. North Sea Brent Blend for November delivery was trading at $36.75 a barrel, down $1.20 from yesterday's close of $37.95 a barrel. Oil prices have doubled since Iraq's Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait, threatening to disrupt supplies from that oil-rich region. Although Bush spoke of releasing only 5 million of America's 590 million barrels of strategic reserves, the announcement last night appeared to help calm the market, brokers said.

By Teo Ballve As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez fights for his life, an honest assessment of his 14 years in office must take into account his significant achievements. From humble origins, Chavez worked his way up the ranks of the Venezuelan military. He seized the national spotlight in 1992 after leading military officers in a failed coup. In a televised address, Chavez admitted the power grab had failed - "for now," as he ominously put it. For many viewers, the once-obscure colonel became a national folk hero, the person who had finally stood up to a corrupt regime.

U.N. inspectors scoured six suspected weapons sites yesterday as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there was no question that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Rumsfeld, speaking in Qatar where he signed a deal with the emirate to further upgrade a big U.S. military base in the Gulf state, said in an interview with CNN: "It is clear that the Iraqis have weapons of mass destruction. " He added: "The issue is whether or not the Iraqi government has made a decision that the game is up and that it will comply with the United Nations resolutions . . . to disarm itself of those capabilities.

By Teo Ballve As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez fights for his life, an honest assessment of his 14 years in office must take into account his significant achievements. From humble origins, Chavez worked his way up the ranks of the Venezuelan military. He seized the national spotlight in 1992 after leading military officers in a failed coup. In a televised address, Chavez admitted the power grab had failed - "for now," as he ominously put it. For many viewers, the once-obscure colonel became a national folk hero, the person who had finally stood up to a corrupt regime.

DEAR HARRY: I was browsing on my computer the other night when I came across an article that claimed that the U.S. has oil reserves in a belt from Montana to Texas that exceed those of the entire Middle East. The estimates run to a trillion barrels. This is supposed to be a long-held secret by an agreement among the major oil-drilling companies. The article seemed to be the real McCoy, with all kinds of backup information. It also urged readers to sell their oil-company stocks and get involved in buying long-term oil options.

CAMP DAVID, Md. - Confronting an economic crisis that threatens them all, President Obama and leaders of other world powers on Saturday declared that their governments must both spark growth and cut the debt that has crippled the European continent and put investors worldwide on edge. "There's now an emerging consensus that more must be done to promote growth and job creation right now," Obama proclaimed after hosting unprecedented economic talks at Camp David, his mountaintop retreat.

IN THE REGION Sales of generic Seroquel begin Drugmakers have begun selling generic versions of the antipsychotic Seroquel, days after a U.S. court dismissed a bid by British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to extend the patent. Mylan Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. say they are starting the commercial launch of quetiapine fumarate tablets. A U.S. court on Friday dismissed AstraZeneca's bid to extend patents on the medication's active ingredient, quetiapine, and on the formula for Seroquel XR, the extended-release version.

WASHINGTON - The price of oil tumbled Thursday after the U.S. and other industrialized countries said they would release 60 million barrels of crude from their stockpiles in a bid to revive the flagging economic recovery by driving down painfully high energy prices. The stockpiled oil, half of it to come from the U.S. government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, is scheduled to be sold on the energy markets in the next 30 days, the Obama administration said Thursday. "This is about addressing supply disruptions and their potential impact on global economic growth," a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call.

STRUGGLING to recover from the financial assault by Wall Street, and drowning in foreclosures, lost jobs, rising taxes, escalating medical costs, cuts to school programs which inevitably lead to burgeoning prisons, we're engaged in yet another military conflict in a Muslim nation. We're barely out of Iraq, which has cost U.S. taxpayers a staggering $782 billion. (Sound familiar? It's the amount of our economic stimulus.) Also entrenched in a futile conflict in Afghanistan, which has cost more than $390 billion and is climbing, we find ourselves reluctantly dragged by our European allies, the Arab League and the plaintive cries from Libyan rebels who faced extermination by their leader of 42 years, the delusional madman Moammar Gadhafi.

It can be telling when a campaign relies on numerical demagoguery. Every candidate and campaign does so to an extent, but John McCain's team seems to be especially prone. Consider the incessant talk about earmarks, those congressional provisions that fund specific projects in a legislator's district or state. This is often unnecessary pork-barrel spending and, in many (but not all) cases, nothing to celebrate. Although this is hardly a presidential issue, McCain likes to rail about purportedly frivolous earmarks - for example, for mapping the DNA of bears in Montana or upgrading a planetarium in Chicago.

Sky-high oil profits Anyone who drives a car that runs on gasoline should get a thank-you card soon from Rex Tillerson, chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. ("Exxon profit sets record, but its stock drops," Aug. 1). The skyrocketing prices we pay at the pump mean a lot to him. Exxon Mobil reported a second-quarter profit of $11.68 billion, 14 percent more than in the same period last year. Thank you, American consumers! If John McCain's campaign ads are to be believed, the blame for those high gas prices should not be pinned on Tillerson or any of the GOP's super-rich friends.

Arthur J. Magida is writer in residence at the University of Baltimore 'Thanks for saving our planet," the young mother called out, giving me a friendly smile while pushing a baby stroller outside Whole Foods. I had no idea what she was talking about. I was no superhero, saving the Earth from a mammoth asteroid or rescuing Western civilization from a villain sitting on an arsenal of WMDs. I was just some schmo pulling up to an organic-food emporium on his bike. Then I realized why she was excited: I wasn't in a Hummer, pickup truck or SUV. Rather, I was balancing precariously on two thin wheels, pedaling furiously, sweating profusely, all so I could buy some food without dipping into our dwindling oil reserves.

Readers respond to The Sunday Inquirer's coverage of the five-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. Alfred C. Price Philadelphia "Americans are tired of this war; that's indicated by their support for the political candidates who speak loudest against it. They want the soldiers to come home. So do we. " I agree with that consensus statement expressed about the Iraq war by the Inquirer Editorial Board. However, I am not so sure of the following: "With Saddam gone, we will not leave Iraq worse than we found it. . . . " History and the Iraqi people will be best-equipped to decide that.