Shell Game
Today’s big announcement in the major media is that Royal Dutch Shell and ‘oil-trading giant’ Vitol have suspended gasoline sales to Iran. That news has been met with much applause and patriotic glad tidings. Yea! They’re on our side!
The move by Shell isn’t new. You are just now hearing about these things. Don’t you find that odd?
Truth is, the world’s three largest gasoline suppliers, Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore, have been stopping their sales to Iran beginning late last year. (Why they’re doing it is a matter of conjecture. Its it pressure by the US and allies, or just a businessman’s instinct to get out of the way of big trouble? They aren’t saying.)
But in any event, it is not working. The Chinese’ shadowy gasoline interests… including Shen Hua, their very aggressive oil exploration company that has been making deals all over Africa… have been picking up the slack in gasoline sales to Iran. So have some Dubai traders, who obviously will do pretty much anything for money since their economy collapsed.
The world now knows that ‘harsh sanctions’ on gasoline for Iran obviously will not work. The ’sanctions’ are de facto in place, and it isn’t making a grease spot of difference.
It would take a naval blockade to keep gasoline from Iran.
Are we ready for that?
