Chris Martenson: Iraq Crisis-$150 to $200 Oil Might Seem Cheap!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZIvYUmw7Qo]

• Iraq Crisis-$150 to $200 Oil Might Seem Cheap-Chris Martenson! 
  by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
  Chris Martenson is an economic researcher and futurist who produced a popular video seminar called “Crash Course.”   Back in early 2008, he explained the “interconnected forces in the economy, energy and the environment.”  Now, he has produced a new “Accelerated Crash Course,” and this theme is playing out in places like Iraq.  Martenson says, “If you want to understand what is going on in Iraq, you have to understand what is going on with energy in this part of the game. . . .The U.S. media goes out of its way to pretend this is just some random thing that happened.  A bunch of crazy people came out of Syria and are causing trouble. . . . The post reconstruction effort in Iraq, if it wasn’t designed to fail, it was the biggest bungling job of all of history.  We dismantled key institutions, we dismantled their army and left the country a hollowed out shell.  Guess what, now that’s breaking.”  Martenson goes on to point out, “Here’s why it affects us.  Oil and oil infrastructure is fragile stuff.  A refinery is thousands of moving parts and miles of tubes and pipes.  One mortar lobbed in there and that whole refinery gets shut down. . . . The idea we can have full blown Sunni, Shia, Kurd conflict where they’re going to duke it out for power, and have all that oil infrastructure remain untouched, I think is a fantasy.”
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  So, what happens to oil prices if Iraqi oil is taken off the market because of war?  Martenson says, “If that goes away, oil prices are set at the margin.  That 2.5 million barrels going off line brings us to $150 oil.  If something worse happens, Saudi Arabia gets involved or the Strait of Hormuz gets closed down, then we’re talking about numbers like $200 a barrel, and that might even seem cheap.  We don’t know how high oil could go if this turns into regional conflict.  That is the risk, and it’s on the table now.”
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