Bahrain, which saw deadly protest this month, is eager to control the price of food according to Wikileaks

Rising food prices have been at the centre of the recent riots to hit the Arab world and so it comes as no surprise that many Arab nations are working hard to avoid similar food price rises.

According to the Wikileak revelations, Bahrain increased government subsidies in an effort to off-set rising prices for lower-income families in 2008 and has promised more generous subsidies recently. Even so, this hasn’t stopped political turmoil as the tiny Gulf state has been rocked by explosive protests this month that left seven dead and hundreds injured when troops opened fire on protesters.

Bahrain, which has a population of just over 1 million, has struggled with rising food prices although generous subsidies have been promised to take the edge of the high prices. Bahrain, like other Gulf states imports most of its food and consumer goods making it particularly vulnerable to price hikes.

It was reported by the Economist that the site of recent protests in Bahrain- Pearl Square in the country’s capital- now houses a sprawling camp of several thousand protesters with free-food stands. The protests also led to the cancellation of the Formula Grand Prix event which normally brings in $600 million in total revenue to the Gulf state.

The high price of food is believed to have contributed to the success of revolts in places such as Tunisia and Egypt. In fact, the riots have also had an affect on world food prices by pushing up the price of oil which has impacted the price of food production and consequently the price of food.

In Saudi Arabia, where food makes up a quarter of household costs (more than anywhere else in the region), there have also been attempts to stem food prices. The King of Saudi, who is 83, returned for a health trip abroad and announced a very generous $37 billion for new public spending to stave off unrest.

Other Gulf states such as the UAE have attempted to improve their food security due to the high level of imported food in the region. However, concerns have been raised at the methods that the oil-rich countries have attempted to achieve their food security- namely buying up huge tracts of land across Africa.

:Image via certified su on flickr.

For more on rising food prices in the Middle East see:

Arab Protest Affect World Food Prices

Rising Food Prices Behind Riots in Algeria and Tunisia

Jordan Joins The Food Protest As Tunisian President Steps Down

The post Wikileaks, Bahrain and Saudi: Concerns over Rising Food Prices Spread appeared first on Green Prophet.

As the largest exporter of crude oil, Saudi Arabia has kept international oil prices reasonably steady. Until now. The recent instability in the region coupled with overambitious estimates and slowing production has cast serious doubt on the country’s ability to keep prices low. Even more troubling, The Guardian reports that recently leaked confidential cables show that peak oil could occur as early as 2012. Peak oil’s inevitability has long been known, but it was earlier thought that we had until 2020.

The United States Consul met with Sadad al-Hussein, a Geologist and former head of exploration at Aramco, the Saudi Oil Company responsible for so much of the world’s crude oil supply. Mr. al-Hussein disputes claims by Mr. Abdallah al-Saif, the current Aramco Senior Vice President, that the company will be able to produce 900 billion barrels of oil within the next twenty years.

According to one of a series of cables exchanged between the American Embassy in Riyadh and Washington, this number represents a 300 billion barrel or 40% overestimation. In one cable, the consul sums up Mr. al-Hussein’s reasoning:

“According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray.”

Mr. al-Husseini believes that output will plateau for the next fifteen years and that it will thereafter decline.

This is in keeping with an earlier projection made by the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s chief economist Faith Birol, who told the Guardian that oil production would peak in 2020.

Putting an additional strain on international supply, Saudi’s local economic and population growth is usurping oil otherwise slated for export. A cable dated October, 2009 demonstrates that Saudi will have to double its generation capacity to 68,000 MW by 2018 in order to sustain its own demand.

Other Gulf countries such as Abu Dhabi, are experiencing similar conundrums, though to a less disastrous degree. As a result, belated efforts are being made to develop alternative resources such as solar in order to lessen the local demand for oil. Some of Saudi’s desalination plants, for example, will be solar-powered.

China – a major importer of oil – has set its sights on hard-to-reach African oil to compensate for Saudi’s dwindling monopoly, but it is only a matter of time before global demand outstrips supply. And the experts are gravely concerned.

“We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse,” Jeremy Legget, head of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, told the Guardian.

:: The Guardian

More on Saudi Arabia and Oil:

Saudia Arabia To Replace Oil With Sun Power for Desalination Plants

Summer Heat Jams Oil Production In Oil-Rich Saudi Arabia

With Peak Oil Looming, Gulf States Consider Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies

image via madaboutasia

The post WikiLeaks: Former Aramco Head Warns US About Saudi’s Strained Oil Production appeared first on Green Prophet.

Last November, seven casks of highly enriched uranium almost leaked into the atmosphere, but the world was none the wiser thanks to American diplomacy efforts. Following a United Nations meeting in which he embarrassed himself, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has emerged as a capricious and eccentric character prone to lustful favoritism, had a nuclear temper tantrum. Only gentle cooing from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and an $800,000 promise to remove Libya’s former weapons grade uranium could persuade him to allow Russia to gently lift and relocate the radioactive HUE.

Gaddafi insists, even in hotels, on pitching a Bedouin tent – ostensibly to stay in touch with his roots even in western societies. When this demand was made at the United Nations last year, he was prohibited from doing so. He also delivered a nonsensical two hour speech that was ill-received.

Humiliated, Gaddafi rescinded an agreement to dispose of Libya’s HUE stock, leaving instead seven five tonne casks of radioactive material attended by only one armed guard on the tarmac of the Tajoura nuclear facility.

The cables demonstrate that the American Department of Defense were deeply concerned that the HUE would heat up and then create cracks in the casks that were designed only for transport and not long-term storage, and a massive campaign to placate the irascible leader was mounted.

A message from US ambassador Gene Cretz said that “according to the DOE experts we have one month to resolve the situation before the safety and security concerns become a crisis,” the Guardian reports.

“Given the highly transportable nature of the HEU and the shoddy security at Tajoura any mention of this issue in the press could pose serious security concerns. We have to assume that the Libyan leader is the source of the problem,” he added.

Both Gaddafi and his aides were repeatedly warned of the environmental pressures that mounted as time passed and the HUE baked on the tarmac. American officials also advised that they at least disassemble a nearby crane – which terrorists could easily have used to pick up the nuclear prize in the dead of the night.

The crisis was not averted until weeks after Hillary Clinton sent a soothing memo and the Americans gave Gaddafi an ultimatum: either allow the Russians to take the HUE by December 18th, or find someone else to foot the $800,000 bill. He eventually conceded and Russia flew off with the illicit cargo away on December 21, 2009.

“America’s nuclear emergency team that oversaw the shipment reported that “the month-long impasse had taken a visible toll on Dr Ali Gashut, the head of the Libyan atomic energy establishment,” according to the paper.

:: story and image via The Guardian

More unsavory environmental news from Libya:

Libya Touts Great Man-Made River as 8th Wonder of the World

Libya’s Pivot Irrigation in the Sahara Proves Money Can Do Anything

The post More Leaks: US Secretly Paid Russia $800,000 To Remove Libya’s Highly Enriched Uranium Before Disaster appeared first on Green Prophet.