The New Threat To Corporations

There is a rising threat to the power of the oil companies - nations. In particular, oil producing nations. From western hemisphere to eastern, nations are flexing their muscles. Russia's move to capitalist control of energy resources have largely been brought to heel by Putin. Russia has also chosen to wield that energy as a mechanism of control to bring former Soviet Block countries back under Russia's influence. Likewise there is a spreading revolt in South America - Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia, and da Silva (Lula) in Brazil is labeled as "giving in" to Morales. Welcome to the global struggle which arrives with peak oil.

We have a global economy dependent on oil. The forces of empire and globalization brought the bulk of that resource into corporate control. Signing over that control was a manufactured necessity to survive. Now that resource is in increasingly high demand and increasingly short supply. Oil becomes not just an economic tool, but a political weapon - something that the Saudi's learned well in the 1970's, and something that Iran is also using to the maximum.

However, all of these nations are not operating from the same motives or towards the same goal. It seems clear that Russia is attempting to regroup its former position of power, and to do so has joined forces with China. Iran seems at base to both protect itself and advance its position as a dominant force in the region. sitting on the Strait of Hormuz, they control a choke point of oil and gas transport even if there was not one drop of oil or gas within Iran.

One the other hand, it appears that for Venezuela and Bolivia, that the people have chosen to reclaim their nations' resources. Both Chavez and Morales were elected by the people - largely the disenfranchised of their nations. So too Lula is a populist - though perhaps not as far left at Morales and Chavez.

It is hard to imagine that the House of Saud is likely to release the reins of power by becoming a "democracy," and the U.S (and Britain) is unlikely to push that - particularly as other sources show less and less willingness to be bullied. The U.S. needs the energy resources far more than Iran, Venezuela or Bolivia, and that need is a situation that places power within the oil producing nations.

Of course, the U.S. has "dealt with" such "uprisings" in the past - leaders mysteriously get blown out of the air, or assassinated, or coups are popular. The big oil users will not turn lightly aside from the loss of control of energy resources. At this point, those energy producers are aligning themselves with China which brings another dimension into play. Of course, ultimately, China will take no kinder stand with "upstarts" than the U.S. has, but that is down the road. That road may never come to play.

The world is treading a razor's edge, and the geopolitics of oil become increasingly complex.