Pepe Escobar : Strategic Oil Reserves Nearly Empty: What Comes Next?

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130 segments

0:00

The federal government tapped the

0:02

strategic reserves in order to give the

0:04

oil companies more oil to refine in

0:07

gasoline so as to as high as gasoline

0:10

went I paid $5.99 a gallon 6 days ago

0:14

to try and keep that number down and

0:16

then they reached the point where they

0:17

couldn't couldn't take any more oil

0:20

because there wouldn't be enough for the

0:21

military. Is that it in a nutshell?

0:24

>> Yes. Yes, that's it in a nutshell judge.

0:27

0:29

Well, after I read the report I was

0:32

convinced that yeah, I had missed the

0:33

main point

0:34

>> [laughter]

0:35

>> because my article was essentially on

0:37

the geopolitics and the geo-economics of

0:40

the whole situation and of course

0:42

the contours of

0:44

how Iran they could do anything they

0:47

wanted with the Strait of Hormuz and

0:50

they already had the mechanisms in place

0:53

and everybody was already paying without

0:55

even discussing.

0:57

So but this was not the main point. From

1:00

the point of view of

1:02

trying to disguise the strategic defeat

1:05

of the US there was a much more

1:07

interesting

1:08

a much more pressing issue which is if

1:12

we get to mid-August and not and the

1:14

Strait of Hormuz is totally blocked or

1:17

almost totally blocked like it was a few

1:19

days ago then there's no extra to be

1:23

dumped by the Americans and the global

1:26

economy will go down the drain. In a

1:28

matter of days.

1:30

>> What does this tell you about Hegseth

1:33

and military planning?

1:35

Um even the Department of Energy that

1:39

they would allow this number to get so

1:42

low that they came running to the

1:43

president at the last minute saying you

1:45

got to stop the war cuz we'll run out of

1:47

oil.

1:47

>> I think it proves to all of us and to

1:49

the whole planet that there's no

1:50

planning at all.

1:53

It's it's as as simple as that.

1:57

If they had at least forcing, look, we

1:59

can dump our reserves or maybe a month

2:02

or two, but not like almost

2:04

indefinitely, which was the case until

2:07

Trump took this decision only a few days

2:09

ago.

2:10

If If he

2:12

If these numbers were not available to

2:15

him, and there are many ways they could

2:17

be lost in the Washington bureaucracy,

2:20

you would have been too late.

2:22

If he If he If he took the same decision

2:24

1 month from now, in mid-July, would

2:26

have been too late already. This is what

2:28

the report that I received was saying

2:29

explicitly.

2:31

And of course, they they were saying,

2:33

"Look, the point is not

2:36

you block the Strait of Hormuz and then

2:39

oil gets to 100, 120, you know that.

2:42

It's It's not the price tag.

2:45

It's the long-term implications. If you

2:48

take, I think it's more than 1 billion

2:51

barrels of oil off the market,

2:55

you destabilize the global market

2:57

completely, which is the the stage that

2:59

we are now.

3:01

And this was essentially because of

3:03

American actions.

3:05

>> Did Trump come to the rescue, so to

3:08

speak,

3:10

too late? In other words, are these

3:11

problems

3:13

triggered by

3:15

the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and

3:17

the depletion of the American strategic

3:20

uh petroleum reserve?

3:23

They're not going to be solved

3:24

overnight.

3:25

>> No, they won't. And that's why we need

3:27

to wait for what's going to happen

3:29

between now and let's say mid-July and

3:32

late July.

3:33

3:34

it depends, of course, on the Americans

3:38

really ending their blockade of Iranian

3:43

ports, which is not a blockade of the

3:44

Strait of Hormuz. They decided to

3:46

blockade all Iranian ports

3:48

uh exporting from uh Persian Gulf.

3:52

Let's see if this happens. Number one.

3:53

Number two,

3:55

uh they are already complaining that

3:57

Iranians cannot charge anything on their

3:59

territorial waters, but this is a uh a

4:01

sovereign Iranian issue.

4:04

They don't depend on the United States

4:05

if they decide to charge uh maintenance

4:08

fees, security fees, environmental fees,

4:13

whatever

4:14

any way you want to describe it, right?

4:16

So, this is what's going to happen in

4:17

the next few weeks. If we see

4:20

4:21

Hormuz

4:22

getting back to a semblance of normality

4:25

compared to

4:27

uh in relation to the beginning of the

4:29

before the beginning of the war, maybe

4:32

we can sail through

4:35

the deple- the American depletion.

4:38

But, if Don't forget that the depletion

4:40

continues, uh Judge.

4:42

It's not that they stopped it.

4:45

They're still putting American uh uh

4:47

reserves uh uh on the market

4:51

to suppress the price of oil. So, this

4:52

has not started. This has not uh then

4:55

the new situation has not started yet.

Interactive Summary

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The video discusses the strategic crisis surrounding the depletion of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to rising gasoline prices and geopolitical tensions involving the Strait of Hormuz. The speakers criticize the lack of military planning within the U.S. government, noting that the country was nearing a critical point where reserves would be insufficient for military needs. They also analyze the global economic implications of oil market destabilization and the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.