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As BP Prepares To Evacuate Staff From A Burning Libya, Commodities Are Exploding
Is this one of those "who could have possibly seen it coming" moments? As events in Libya overnight spiralled out of control, with dozens if not hundreds killed, the parliament buildng in Tripoli on fire, and output at one of the country's oil fields reported to have been stopped by a workers' strike, BP has said it will soon begin evacuating some of its personnel from the 9th largest producer of oil. And just to complete the total chaos, Iran warships are now going to pass the Suez on Tuesday instead of today, to the full glory of a fully open US stock market. The result: gold over $1,400; silver over $33.50; Crude front month over $93; Brent over $105; etc. Luckily, the US stock market is closed, meaning all this will be "priced in" by tomorrow, and the HFT levitation can resume tomorrow as if today never happened...
Some of the key overnight highlights:
Dozens of people were reported killed in Tripoli overnight as anti-government protests reached the Libyan capital for the first time and the building where the country's parliament meets was ablaze on Monday.
One of Muammar Gaddafi's sons said the veteran leader would fight the popular revolt that has shaken his 40-year rule until "the last man standing."
Anti-government protesters rallied in Tripoli's streets, tribal leaders spoke out against Gaddafi, and army units defected to the opposition in a revolt that has cost the lives of more than 200 people.
Output at one of the country's oil fields was reported to have been stopped by a workers' strike and some European oil companies withdrew expatriate workers and suspended operations.
Al Jazeera television quoted medical sources as saying 61 people had been killed in the latest protests in Tripoli.
It said security forces were looting banks and other government institutions in Tripoli and protesters had broken into several police stations and trashed them.
The building where the General People's Congress, or parliament, meets when it is in session in Tripoli was on fire on Monday morning, a Reuters reporter said.
The eastern city of Benghazi, where the protests began last week after the arrest of a human rights lawyer and where scores of people have been killed by security forces, was said by some residents to be effectively in the hands of the protesters.
Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi appeared on national television in an attempt both to threaten and to calm people, saying the army would enforce security at any price to put down one of the bloodiest revolts to convulse the Arab world.
"We will keep fighting until the last man standing, even to the last woman standing.
Wagging a finger at the camera, he accused Libyan exiles of fomenting the violence. But he also promised dialogue on reforms and wage rises.
In an indication of disagreement inside Libya's ruling elite, Mohamed Bayou -- who until a month ago was chief government spokesman -- said the leadership was wrong to threaten violence against its opponents.
Bayou called on Saif al-Islam to start talks with the opposition.
BP says it is "very likely" some of the oil company's employees in Libya will be evacuated in the coming days as the violent unrest in the north African country spreads.
A spokesman for BP PLC said the company is drawing up plans for evacuating staff "in the next couple of days."
Anti-government violence has spread from Libyan cities such as Benghazi to the capital, Tripoli. Protesters are clashing with police and demanding the ouster of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.
BP has about 140 employees in the country, of which less than a third are expatriates, spokesman David Nicholas said.
After passing $105 briefly, Brent has since retreated to $104.30. What else can we say - disinflation.
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Futures are open...and NQ looks poised to fall.
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/99er-charts-0
No doubt Ben and his cronies are frantically buying markets across the globe. Will he be able to halt the selloff in time for our market open tomorrow morning?
I am Blithely very long silver. The obscure Hunt brother, Michael Hunt, is also long.
I can't believe no one has said this yet...
Silver, BITCHEZ!
We should be saying... Dinty Moore beef stew, Bitchez!
Bouillon bitchez! As in soup bouillon, chicken, beef and ham!!!
Long, Deep, and Wide
Shell is also evac along with service companies.
Friend in country told me yesterday civilians are armed and running their own checkpoints in suburbs of Tripoli.
short answer is yes.
Drudge is reporting that protesters in Libya are under attack from Libyan Air Force!
In a revolution the military can split; I wouldn’t be surprised if the military splits. Gaddafi’s son said last night there is going to be civil war…
Two fighter pilots have defected to Malta and claiming asylum, said they refused to bomb their own people.
.
Libya spokesmen today are saying that civil war is very unlikely since Libyans are not prone to fire on each other. So far, much of the street violence has come from black African mercenaries brought in by the Gaddafis to attack the protesters.
The only difference is the military may be fighting within itself. And there have even been reports of air attacks on military installations.
Libyan events are very troublesome for the USA, CIA, and Israel.
These events clearly show that masses are ready to take challenges and transform a "peaceful" revolution into a real one with lots of blood for the Arabs ruling elite and military establishment.
The situation is as simple as putting tinker toys together.
First you have the world’s superpower with a military budget larger than the military budgets of the next 14 nations in line, and next its two closest pals -- Israel which in reality dominates American foreign policy, and the corporate oil industry operated almost completely by investment bankers.
Is there any doubt that dictatorships such as Gaddafi’s in Libya are armed to the teeth and allowed to pursue their objectives to enslave their peoples as long as they are “correct” on Israel and keep the BP oil flowing?
Must try harder on the BP smears.
More smears for BP?
Is this the biggest softball question in history? So many smears to choose, so little time and space.
Perhaps the sad tale of Iraqi citizens would suffice for a beginning :
You’ll recall that BP was part of the consortium that gained control over all of Iraqi oil in the 1930s. The country was occupied by Britain, and British-installed puppet King Faisal was able to give most of the oil revenue to the companies along with complete control over decision making.
The terms, of course, outlasted the occupation and even though successive Iraqi governments tried to change the unfair terms, the struggle only gave Iraqis’ national control between 1972 and 1975.
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Tony Blair’s backstabbing of the British people to link arms with the Bushes and Colin Powell’s phony evidence to assault even again the world’s second largest oil reserve country.
The British Empire and its colonialism might have been collapsing and the Empire and the fortunes of BP might have been facing even more difficult times save for the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi villagers who seem to bring the worst memories of the Empire back into the headlines.
off topic:
someone asked the intelligent question essentually of:
when will the market top out?
as the market rises, the fed funds rate increases until it reached 3%, 6 to 8 months after, the market begins to fall.
historically, it is how it usually works. this pattern excludes covert market influences.
Way to go Ben! Your the man!
"One of Muammar Gaddafi's sons said the veteran leader would fight the popular revolt that has shaken his 40-year rule until "the last man standing."
A very, very ill species has overcome this planet. I wonder how nature will deal with it.....
"In an old townhouse in East Boston an elderly stooped man is tending rare orchids in his shabby office. His Labrador Sally lies on the floor between stacks of academic papers watching him as he shuffles past.
This is Dr Gene Sharp the man now credited with the strategy behind the toppling of the Egyptian government.
Gene Sharp is the world's foremost expert on non-violent revolution. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages, his books slipped across borders and hidden from secret policemen all over the world."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12522848
There are no townhouses in East Boston.
You took the words right off my keyboard.
... non-violent revolution ....
And hundreds dead.
Sure.
sschu
Compare and contrast Egypt et al with say...Le Terreur or a typical junta.
It's non-violent from the perspective of those petitioning for change of leadership.
those are not crows.
they just look like them because they are still far away from us (but not as far as they once were). cue neil: big birds flying across the sky, throwing shadows on our eyes. however hope we're not completely helpless.
Sure they are...they're just flocking in swan formation! ;)
For Zero Hedge:
Tyler very Important try to find the last LAFICO /SWF report.... (companies will be affected by the Shutdown in Libya´s agreements"
Biggest Spanish Exposed companies to North Africa:
1.Sacyr
2.OHL
3.Repsol
4.Fadesa
5.FCC
6.GAS NATURAL
7.Tecnicas Reunidas
***
Banco Santander has been leading syndicate in many loans in the area....Risk of default evident....
Italy CDS rocketing
*Silver Rocketing 3 $ in just 10 hours....
*Gold at highs...
* Sell off coming guys...
Ohh boy..Liberate Libya for you
Waha Concession
Operator: Waha Oil Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Libyan National Oil Corp.
Co-venturers: Libyan National Oil Corp. (59.2%), ConocoPhillips (16.3%), Marathon (16.3%), Hess (8.2%)
The Waha concession, made up of multiple concessions, currently produces approximately 350 gross MBOED and encompasses nearly 13 million gross acres in the Sirte Basin. The concessions are valid for an additional 21 to 25 years. Four major growth projects that are under development by the co-venturers include Faregh II, North Gialo, NC-98 and Dahra-Jofra.
Correct....silver and gold and oil up up but the HFT droids will take the US equity market higher...of course this is all good for US equity markets...even higher rates..higher oil all good..It shows a improving economy......fucking joke...
you're depressed??? ..think of poor BP that bolted a mass-murderer from Scottish jail to get in with sweetners in Libya ...all those months 'investing' in corrupting the governing Labour Party gone to waste in the space of a week!!!
I'm sure some of that blood money got into their economy somewhere.
The fact that Al Megrahi had nothing to do with it is academic I guess..
Phlash
I suggest you take that up with the British courts. In the meantime he's still a convicted mass-murderer who was released for 'health reasons' (ill-health and impending death) yet remains in rude good health and still alive.
His pitiful walk to the plane was a stark contrast to the more sprightly walk he made coming off it... weird one eh?
I see not one black swan coming over the horizon but a gaggle of them...oh wait, gaggle is geese...what is a flock of black swans called?
Federal Reserve
Touche my man, touche.
bingo !
Well played sir
[golf clap]
Aflockalypse?
Coss55, TheyLive... I like your style. +++++
I'll have to concede to They Live (great movie BTW). Much funnier thinking cap this AM.
all outta bubba gum
Who would have thought "Rowdy" Roddy Piper would have starred in a movie as meaningful and prescient as "They Live"??? Quite amazing, if you haven't seen it, I recommend you do so.
An 80-car quack-up.
Piper's a good actor. His "heel" performances in the WWF around the time of Wrestlemania I have never been equalled. Hilarious stuff.
haha, haven't heard of that guy in years! underrated
The entire flick via Google Video. 94 minutes well spent.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9005367754264973286#
I've got one that can see!
They are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery.
+ 20/20
It needs a remake with a bit more subtlety.
John Carpenter is not just a master story teller (e.g. see his version of The Thing) he is also a master of getting the most on the screen on a budget. It's meant to be SciFi camp in the B tradition.
It would be tough to top or replicate the fight scene with Roddy Piper and Keith David that just keeps going...lol
Put the glasses on! Put 'em on!
+1
Aflockcalypse¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ lol¡¡¡¡ great
BlackSwans in mass coming ---epic event¡¡¡
They're everywhere man, lookout
Black swan shit everywhere.
how about a shit storm of black swans.
+10 Into the ZH hall of fame you go.
That's brilliant. Now we need the WB "Aflockalypse Now" graphic.
Done
Check the store:
www.zazzle.com/williambanzai7
+++++
LoL!
nice wordage
Ironically enough, the collective noun for swans is "a whiteness."
So I guess a group of black swans would be "a blackness."
excellent info. how fitting
Beautiful, did not know that.
Thanks buddy
A black hole.
(my avatar is meant to be a black hole buts its not very clear. suffice to say we are past the event horizon and so are those swans)
actually there are many collective nouns for swans: wedge (if in flight), herd, game, bank, team or bevy. but for black swans especially i like the more archaic "lamentation".
A flock of crows are collectively 'a murder of crows'...
A flock of bankers are collectively 'a clusterflock of bankers'...
clusterflock! That is great.
I'll accept a murder of bankers, good work my friend :)
I'm not sure any of those apply when the black swans are flying in F16s.
Place the bombs between the minarets.
The hits just keep on coming. This is value.
"suffice to say we are past the event horizon"
Please provide quantitative proof of, or your calculation means for said 'event horizon'.
Didn't think so... Maybe it's time to go back to your art project you seem to have more talent in that arena.
So why do you think it is such a good idea to show quantitative proof you are an As***le?
Do you understand the building blocks of modern economies? If so ,you will understand how our access to "cheap" oil and continuing population growth are required to stave off the ponzi collapsing.
In essence, you can argue Event Horizon was 1694 under the BoE or you could argue it was the Fed in 1913 or if you believed they could turn round the Titanic they constructed then possibly 1971 was Event Horizon. But most certainly sometime around 2005 when oil production peaked was the final chance to prevent being sucked through the Worm hole , but thats all rather acedmic now.
Care to enlighten me how it is already not too late to save our economic system? It will involve a theory not yet known to man. Perhaps you are the new Einstein. Off you go.
While most of us are having a gold/silver orgasm this morning, the judge wanted to spoil it. Please join us instead, and you can experience one yourself as it seems that you haven't had one for a while.
Meanwhile, most zerohedgers have been very quick-witted today and we know why
A bevy.
BLACK SWAN*
2 oz. Absolut Kurant
1 oz. Godiva Liqueur
Stir both ingredients to chill and strain into a chilled martini glass
That has been rimmed with shaved chocolate.
http://www.kingcocktail.com/DrinksA-F.htm
Clusterflock.
Inevitable.
All this seems to be pointing to the end of this month fireworks.
One more big week, one more chance for Twitter, Facebook, bombs and guns to do their work. More sheep/lambs to the slaughter.
Libya goes wild, oil definitely goes to 120.
Then, pump prices in the US, through a critical threshold.
Crazy week and then we've got to worry about the ides of march setting up for a charged mercury retrograde next month.
Wild times. Watch this month-end...
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/through-a-lens-darkly/
And we are still in the winter months...I'm waiting to see what this looks like when the temperatures rise first literally...followed by the figurative/emotional rise that comes with it.
To bad most of the places going up in smoke don't have cold beer and deck chairs.
yup, and the tropics will literally and figuratively be boiling in a month or so.
ORI
Doesn't matter. Market only goes up, until further notice.
Gold
01...02...
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/99er-charts-0
When the US markets are closed we get some semblance of real price movements. A sense of markets trying to figure out where they want to be. Once the US comes back - the Algorithms will be in charge - so Dollar will go down as needed to keep equities moving higher. Sad .
Thank goodness the computers are in charge. What company is it that runs the HFTs. Teledyne, Skynet, I can't remember.
I thought it was Yoyodyne Propulsions Systems
...drives like a truck.
OT Trivia: those scenes from T2 were filmed at my former place of incarceration, Teradyne in Agoura Hills, CA.
Kitco is showing a price for the U.S. market and says
NY market closes in 9 hours
That is probably the GLOBEX.
The Fit has indeed Shit the Han...God help anyone who tries to retain use of the US$ as a trading currency for international commodities. Given how this all has devolved in the past week to 10 days, I think we'll look back in 4-6 weeks as the week of the 14the Feb 2011 as the transition point between relative tranquility and the beginning of growing world wide chaos.
New meaning to St Valentines Day Massacre, eh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine's_Day_massacre
Yep, all bloody like. Bodies everywhere (literally).
Commodities priced in commodities or finished goods (washing out the dollar denominator) are essentially stable. Commodities denominated in fiat currencies (specificly the US$, but also any other fiat regimes which are devaluing said fiat) is crushing the poor, causing social upheavel and toppling governments.
Those governments that are at risk should be considering what Russia-China did in eliminating the US$ as a trade denominator, as a first step. The second step would be to denominate trade in commodities...quite literaly a swap arrangement between nations which are at similar levels of development.
If the system is imploding, time to get out of the system...and make a new system.
"If the system is imploding, time to get out of the system...and make a new system."
A new system is already in place and ready for business:
http://gsfsystem.ch
http://republicfortheunitedstates.org
The Tres Lateral Commission must be giddy this morning.
Bilderberg über alles.
LoL. Rusty is racking up the junks from the commission shills.
I am sure that this unrest is being engineered in order to justify QE IV through QE XXLIV
I am sure this unrest will be used as cover for those things.
"Hey Bob, How do we cover the fact that Peak Oil is arriving ?, Easy Joe, How about whipping a up wave of unrest in North Africa...,
Oil will go up and we can blame it on those revolting (ha ha) Arabs. Nobody will know it was Peak Oil Arriving.... Great Bob, get that going...."
however the wikileaks that hit (2-8-11) just before hillary recalled the ambassadors noted the u.s. was informed (in 2007!) by the saudi ex chief of oil exploration that saudi reserves were overstated by 40% and total potential output was insufficient to reduce the world oil price. bob has a problem.
Does anybody have an idea how much silver needs to rocket in order to make JP Morgan the real JP Morgue? $200?
The Federal Reserve will have infinite ammo to lend JPMorgan to extends its marging in Silver Shorts....
-
The same is done with HSBC in Asia...UK
---
Shorts will appear son.
But why doesn't the Fed lend money to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in order to keep them afloat for ever?
Its not easy first sight...
The Fed could not give more money to any Real Estate Business -Financial Mortgages,....cos REITS and Real Estate Growth is completly kaput for decades
They are waiting for Swap the Monetary Offer into a " hard assets linked currency basket ". ITs a hidden agenda.
Real Estate is just a fact of location , location and location...the rest has no value.
Hard Assets is a fact of Hidden value- Commodity Asset backed securities.
The future is no fiats.
If I remember correctly, the Germans solved their hyperinflation in 1920s with a real estate-backed currency.
But the new money was replaced within a year because as a claim on German Real Estate, it was worthless to foreign governments. Only metals work as backings for curencies because they are the only real financial assets a government has.
Ahem ... "a real-estate backed currency"? ... perhaps he was referring the Germans' use of the durrency as wallpaper - because it was worthless. Mmmm - clever pun. 5+
How would you redeem your dollars for the underlying asset?
I also suppose that, to a certain extent, the dollar is a real estate backed currency... our vassal states produce oil in dollars... and, if push comes to shove, we liquidate state lands and buildings... (it's just that the dollars in existence far outweigh the value of available real estate).
I would argue that the true value of real estate can be measured on the basis of available natural resources, improvement and/or development to include food production, and by the "owner's" ability and determination to defend and protect the land in question.
My concept of land ownership rests on the premise of physical occupation and residency.
Right, but what process facilitates me exchanging my dollars for a particular parcel? If we were to have a real estate backed currency, it would mean we had a whole helluva lot of real estate... meaning, much more than present... in fact, I would go so far as to say, little owned in private hands... why would I redeem for a fractional interest in the whole? If it's governmental land, then it's not going to generate any revenue... if it's private land, it can't be taken... so... I'm really failing to see how this "backing" ever fruitfully materializes.
Any transition from a dollar collapse will no doubt be less than seamless. Personally, I suspect that the ensuing chaos would exclude any immediate transition to yet another form of paper currency, which would likely be used as another mechanism of control through taxation and confiscation.
"Squatters Rights" may supercede any kind of "Special Drawing Rights", especially if the former is backed by the potential use-of-force.
Shorts will certainly appear at $50/ounce. Certainly. Silver is not a rocket ship to infinity. Lets not get carried away with our big hats and our love for Blythe.
Looks like Blythe has her minions on the job... But, raids/dips are being bought.
http://finviz.com/forex.ashx
If you check the SIFO data, you will see what is the real disaster. for Blythe Masters...
This finviz need to switch to Brent crude.
Is all this anti-government violence or is it pro Democracy violence ?
Good one...
expect lots of refugees in Italy, Greece & Malta.
Looks like the Russian's gonna have Christmas sooner this year.
does Brazil have 30 billion barrels of oil? i didnt know they had that much.
http://nakedempire.wordpress.com/
Yep. An unexpected oil find 6 years ago at leased offshore sites.
Brazil nationalized the leased sites and is developing themselves.
They were already oil independent so they'll be an exporter.
And it will last a looooong time given the expense of drilling that far offshore and the miniscule throughput they'll be able to muster.
And the decrease in demand through our worldwide depression...
yeah but very little of the reserves are actually currently recoverable.
Libya army defects, elite forces move over to over side,,,its over in Libya. The Crazy K man is out...along with his gold....
I guess now we'll never standardize the spelling of his name.
Lol
That is the problem of his sudden change from vip to uip! But he gave us what? Thirty years to figure it out?
Libya devolving into civil war, for sure.
Police have turned to the side of protestors.
Army have turned in Benghazi to side of protesters.
You have to understand what the army and police truly are: people who need order and to follow orders. After the revolution they will work for us. It's not any more complicated than that.
Smart Army.
Aflockalypse has made my morning!
BP has a knack for being in the worst places.. too bad they don't stand to defend their oil.. puzzies. Run away run away.
They have a few people there (40?), but nothing in production just exploring & development. Amongst other the Norwegian company Statoil is also there.
Khadaffi has taken his flying camel out of its golden hangar. Next flight Caracas...or has it already occurred? He will then monitor Libyan civil war while drinking coffee with comrade Chavez. Along with him is Ben Ali's wife who was in Tripoli trying to negotiate assylum for her hubby now in coma (still?) in Jeddah. What a dictator's conclave about the oil peak as it spikes into contango a la Venezuela! Have you seen on the Net Ben Ali's stash of jewels he left behind in Tunis in his speedy Gonzales flight out of Tunisia. Who wants to buy some emeralds for cheap, some gold for sheeple?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyIyz44oKQQ&feature=player_embedded#at=93
For economic and fundamental matters, this Con'market' has the attention span of a gnat
To feed all those mouths, "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000," said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
This little quote from a Yahoo article tells me all I need to know about the real cause of all the strife and turmoil in the world lately.
Limits of growth, bitches!
All you have to understand is compounding. If the population doubles say every 40 years then there will be as many people alive as have every lived. Here's an easy example, say there are 128 people alive today.
in 40 years time there will be 2 x 128 = 256 people
40 years ago there were 128/2 = 64 people, 128 + 64 = 192
40 years before that there were 64/2 = 32 people, 192 + 32 = 224
40 years before that there were 32/2 = 16 people, 224 + 16 = 240....
Population growth, whether human, bacteria, or other, follows an S-curve. Mathematically, this is called the Logistic Equation. The usual idea is slow growth until discovery of a food source, then explosive growth, then a leveling off at a sustainable level. Maybe cheap oil was our "food source" moment. In general, though, the overpopulation crowd has another agenda, and of course, they never lead by example.
just like Easter Island
Yep, in grass farming, the middle section of the S is referred to as "the blaze of growth" Maximum weight gain of the grass fed cows is obtained by obeying the "law of the second bite", ie, never let your pastured animals bite the same blade of grass twice in the same, roughly two week period...Rotational grazing is born...
WWF has turned into an eco-commie group, and a primary mover in the global warming fraud
Malthusians who want nothing less than depopulation and UN Agenda-21 implementation.
Youtube it. Not scary at all, if you don't mind forced human resettlement onto just 10% of USA land surface.
Yup - and headed up by Princes Philip and Bernhard who had national socialist friends in the 40's. The same Prince Philip who wrote that he wishes to be reincarnated as a deadly disease so he can do something about the human population problem...
Nothing to see here... move along...
Just listened to a woman on the phone screaming about "Africans" running amok killing and raping in Benghazi on Radio 4 this morning. So the rumours about Gadafi hiring a bunch of African mercenaries to quell the riots is true. Sicko. I wonder how much gold he has transferred already to Blair's house in London?