Gasoline solution

OK, here is the original message again.


We CAN buy gasoline that's not from Middle East. The Saudis are boycotting American goods. We should return the favor. An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS. Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia.

Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis. Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill up the tank, I am sending money to people who are trying to kill my family my friends and me.



I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies are the best to buy gas from and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil (for the period 9/1/00 - 8/31/01):

Shell includes Texaco …………205,742,000 barrels

Exxon /Mobil …………………130,082,000 barrels

Marathon/Speedway …………117,740,000 barrels

Amoco…………………………..62,231,000 barrels



If you do the math at $30 / barrel, these imports amount to over $18 BILLION!



Here are some large companies that do NOT import Middle Eastern oil:

Citgo .……………..0 barrels

Sunoco ……………0 barrels

Conoco …………..0 barrels

Sinclair…………...0 barrels

BP/Phillips ……..0 barrels

Hess ……………..0 barrels



All of this information is available from the Department of Energy.

Each company is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing. They report on a monthly basis. Keep this list in your car; share it with friends. Stop paying for terrorism. To have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas buyers. It's really simple to do!

Now, don't wimp out at this point, keep reading to see how simple it is to reach millions of people! I'm sending this email to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more and those 300 send it to at least ten more and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION. If they each pass this on to ten friends, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

One level further, you guessed it, THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE! Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. This is one way we ALL get to fight back!



This message was edited Saturday, Mar 1st 7:39 PM

This message was edited Sunday, Mar 2nd 11:41 AM

This message was edited Sunday, Mar 2nd 4:55 PM

Sorry, but this is a common hoax that is circulating the Net, and has been since the '90's.

More info here: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/nogas.htm

I did my Ph.D. in Political Economy at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University here in New York City. My thesis was concerned with the impact of petroleum pricing on emerging industrial economies (a subset of what we loosly refer to as "The Third World").

The specific focus of my research was, who would lend these countries the money for their increasing energy needs, how would the debt be structured, and how much money would they need. I did my work in this field during the late '70s and early '80s.

I have personally visited nearly every nation on the planet that exports petroleum, whether they be an OPEC member or not.

There has since that time been considerable restructuring of the ownership of proven and unproven reserves, merging and de~merging of the integrated oil majors, renegotiations between national governments and the extraction companies, and considerable shifting around in the ownership of refining/catalytic cracking plants (no one wants to own them as the pricing margins are so narrow it's almost impossible to make a profit).

With this credential explained..., sadly I must tell you that the information in the post by DJM is inaccurate, and the countervailing information shown in the link to Snopes posted by Horseshoe presents a more accurate image of the prevailing situation.

Petroleum products, like all commodities, are fungible. This means they are indistinguishable one from the other, and readily take the shape of the container into which you pour them. In energy output potential, 90 Octane Low Lead from one pump is identical to 90 Octane Low Lead from another.

The international oil industry is a maze of subtle interlocking relationships, complex interdependencies, savvy political operations, and fundamental economic principles.

The sum result of a selective boycot would be the contraction of output by OPEC nations, demand pressure on remaining pipelines, and a significant increase in price at the pump.

When the price became painful to consumers, they would return to once boycotted sources, who would then sell them product at lower yet still increased prices, therefore reaping a whirlwind profit from the selective boycott.

Think about it.

Adam.
(Edited to correct spelling error.)


This message was edited Saturday, Mar 1st 7:20 PM

Adam, thank you for an informed summary on this subject. I would love to think we could boycott business and have an impact on our adversaries without doing significant damage to ourselves. But in the world of today, that has not seemed realistic for quite a long time. The shrinking globe has conjoined all of us to the point that we must find ways to peacefully coexist or pay dearly in ways we don't even know are possible. I am not sure there is an easy solution. In fact, I/m pretty sure there isn't. I am thankful for people who take the time to look for information, and for the ease with which some information can be had. Please, all of you with clear heads, never stop informing yourselves and others, because knowledge is indeed power, and one never knows enough.

Yes thank you both for clarifying this subject. I had gotten this in an Email and found it a bit disturbing. I am glad to find out it is not true, in fact I may delete the message. Thanks again.

Don't delete the message..., use it to help claify mistaken impressions, so we can all make our decisions with the facts.

Adam.

Contrary to popular belief, the brand name on the pumps at a retail gasoline outlet do not necessarily mean that the gasoline delivered therefrom is supplied by that brand name's company. it is perfectly legal to use any gasoline that meets the octane requirements as advertised on the pumps and many companies have cross-supplier agreements. notably at one time for instance, Texaco used to supply Hess stations on the south side of the Lincoln tunnel and vice versa on the North side because they could not run tankers through the tunnel. obviously attempts to "boycott" given brands would be somewhat hampered by this situation as well as the other problems already pointed out in this thread.

That is very true, kikisdad. Thanks for pointing that out.

And, if ya'll don't mind, may I add what a good thread this has become? In many ways. Thank you Doris for the concern/care you've always shown towards us. There is no doubt you wanted to alert us to an important topic such as this. (As an aside folks...in my Life I've made decisions based on the information I had at a given time, only to find out later that I wasn't necessarily "wrong", just mis-informed. Then, at that time, I had new info to work with, and could easily work with it.) It seems that may be the case here as well.

Forwarded emails (chain emails) like this abound, and it is certainly easy to jump on them, especially if we receive them from our friends. I've practically made it a hobby to check them out for truth/untruth over the past few years, and usually more often than not they are not valid. I have no idea who starts them, or why (altho sometimes I think they are started to turn us against each other, or make someone or some company or government "look bad").

In the past I've been as guilty as the rest of us. Here we are, reading such news, then wanting to help our friends by passing on the info. If it's Truth, we all benefit. If not, I have no idea who benefits. I do know this tho...by this topic coming up, not only did we discover this is a myth, but also have brought to light that we should all be aware of how damaging hoax emails can be, and how important it is to check them out. Dave told me a couple years ago about snopes.com, I encourage others to add it to your Favorites list (not only does it expose hoaxes but there is some mighty good reading there!).

So...all in all, am glad this came to the attention of ya'll. (Ain't it great how what may appear to be a "negative" can turn into a great "Positive"! Many thanks Doris! You did good!

Ditto!

Reuters
RPT-U.S. oil giants back away from Iraqi crude
Friday March 7, 8:34 am ET
By Bernie Woodall


NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. oil
companies have backed away from buying Iraqi crude as looming
war in the country makes purchases too much of a risk.
The threat of a public backlash at firms buying Iraqi oil
as well as concerns that Iraqi supplies might be cut off by war
are too great, analysts said.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM - News) and ChevronTexaco Corp. (NYSE:CVX - News),
the U.S.' two biggest oil companies have both stopped taking
shipments from Iraq as the Bush administration closes in on
war, spokesmen for the two companies said.
"We've developed economic alternatives," said ChevronTexaco
spokesman Chris Gidez. "This is a prudent, business-driven
decision."
Exxon Mobil has bought no Iraqi crude for U.S. delivery
since last October, according to U.S. Department of Energy
figures. The company does buy some Iraqi crude on the
international market for destinations in Europe and Asia, a
spokeswoman said.
"It's mom and apple pie here. Consumers are looking at the
source of oil and people are very unhappy about doing business
with companies that are buying from Iraq right now," said oil
analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover of Connecticut.
TRADED THROUGH MIDDLEMEN
While U.S. refiners take most of Iraq's exports, no U.S.
companies purchase Iraqi crude directly from Baghdad. Rather,
middleman trading firms usually buy Iraq's crude from Baghdad
under U.N. supervision and then resell it to U.S. refiners.
According to shipping sources, the last cargo of Iraqi
crude sold to ChevronTexaco anywhere in the world was shipped
in late January.
Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE:VLO - News), one of the biggest U.S.
refiners, has also cut back on its consumption of Iraqi crude
from 152,000 bpd throughout 2001 to 49,000 bpd in the fourth
quarter, the figures show. Koch Industries (News - Websites) which took 84,000
bpd over the year, took none in the fourth quarter. Both
companies declined comment.
While Iraqi crude is still being imported into the United
States, it is foreign-owned oil companies such as France's
TotalFinaElf (Paris:TOTF.PA - News) and Venezuela's U.S. affiliate Citgo
that are bringing the oil into the country, according to
government figures.
In the first two months of this year, Iraq shipped just
over 1 million barrels a day to the United States -- some 67
percent of the Iraqi crude sold officially in the
U.N.-administered oil-for-food program, industry sources said.
Since December 1996, Iraq has sold crude oil through the
U.N. "oil-for-food" program, an exception to 1990-91 Gulf War
sanctions that allows Iraq to export oil and use the revenue to
buy food and humanitarian goods for its citizens.
ChevronTexaco usually likes to buy Iraq's sour crude for
its refineries in California and Louisiana because its
specifications closely match the needs of those refineries.
Iraq has a sustainable export rate of about 2.2 million
bpd, but exports have lagged since late 2001 as an illegal
surcharge outside the U.N. program that the Iraqi government
demanded from oil customers discouraged international firms
from buying Iraqi oil
INSECURE SUPPLY
After Baghdad dropped the surcharge last September, some
U.S. companies, such as ChevronTexaco, initially stepped up
purchases of Iraqi crude.
But the threat of imminent war as the Bush administration
resolves to disarm Iraq using military force if necessary has
made Iraqi crude too risky.
"It's the uncertainty. Companies are worried about the
supply. They want to be sure they can lift and they can't be
sure going into a war," said analyst Raad Alkadiri of The
Petroleum Finance Co. in Washington.
Iraqi exports are widely expected to halt in the event of
military action in Iraq and oil traders are wary of hefty
cancellation charges that tanker owners impose to compensate
losses if loadings cease.
Many refiners -- now making their best profits in years as
gasoline and heating oil prices rise -- are also nervous about
relying too heavily on Iraqi oil.
"If you're loading early next week there's a good chance
the oil will be there, but then you run the risk of waiting too
long to try to sell," said one trader.
(additional reporting by Jonathan Leff in London)