Iran official threatens drill to seal off Strait of Hormuz

[Faster horses]

A high-ranking Iranian official has said Iran's military will practice sealing off the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil transport channel, in a provocative move that illustrates Iran's capability of disrupting the world's oil supply.

The announcement Monday by Parviz Sarvari sent oil prices up about $3 to $100 a barrel based on the speculation of a disruption during the military drills, Bloomberg reported.

"Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz," Sarvari, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security Committee, said in a statement reported by Reuters. "If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure."

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Iran has long used the threat of disrupting oil production as a main military deterrent, a sort of economic missile in its silo.

Although Sarvari did not name a specific country making the region insecure, though diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been on the rise recently over the U.S. drone that went down in Iran.

Pentagon Spokesman Doug Wilson responded by saying although he has no information on the exercises, the United States government is committed to the free and safe passage in international waters and anything that interferes with that would be "detrimental."

The report of the planned exercise in the Strait of Hormuz is the latest example of Iranian provocation. In September, Iran's navy laid out plans to move naval vessels out of the Persian Gulf and into the Atlantic Ocean "near maritime borders of the United States," the Tehran Times reported.

Iran also has faced international pressure for it's nuclear program. Iran insists the program is for peaceful uses, but in November, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report that Tehran has conducted secret experiments whose sole purpose is the development of atomic weapons. Iran denies that charge.

About 15.5 million barrels of oil a day, about a sixth of global consumption, flows through the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported, citing the U.S. Department of Energy.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/13/iranian-official-threatens-military-drill-sealing-off-strait-hormuz/#ixzz1gSxwyBXg

 

[hypocritexposer]

Once they reopen it, maybe the rest of the World should keep it sealed....the citizens of Iran would either revolt or starve.....

 

[Steve]

Iran has abundant oil and natural gas but must import both... as the sanctions have limited their ability to produce adequate amounts for their own society..

it is just a matter of countries such as China being told.. you either stop doing business with them or US.

Iran sits atop mammoth energy reserves —about 136 billion bbl. of oil and some 14 trillion cu m of natural gas. But because its refineries are too few and too old, the country refines just two-thirds of the gas it needs to keep its economy working and its 65 million people lit, driving and heated. The remaining third — about 120,000 bbl. a day — has to be imported.

The country's imports come from a fairly small number of firms, including Swiss-Dutch companies Vitol and Trafigura and India's Reliance Industries. New U.S. sanctions would force those companies to choose between doing business in the U.S. or doing business with Iran — a no-brainer for most firms. "They have bigger fish to fry [than Iran],"

"They all have bigger markets elsewhere, including in the U.S." Indeed, even talk of a refined-petroleum blockade convinced British Petroleum to halt its exports to Iran last year. Oil analysts believe Reliance has suspended sales to Iran too.

Iran has probably stockpiled at least three months' worth of gasoline. The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Co. estimates that the country has some 15.7 million bbl. of gasoline — about four months' worth — stockpiled in tankers on land and off its Persian Gulf coast. After BP and Reliance halted exports to Iran, Chinese state-owned oil companies filled the gap, supplying about one-third of Iran's gasoline imports as of last month,

Tehran could use all these stopgap methods to buy time — which is all it really needs to do. Chinese firms and, until recently, India's Reliance, have been working on massive upgrades of the country's refineries. "If Iran can maintain its refinery upgrades, they'll be self-sufficient in gas by 2013," says Dalton.

in time we will have fewer options of pressuring Iran, and war will be the only option..

personally I am with Hypo on the straits being blocked, let Iran cut it's own throat..

 

[hypocritexposer]

Would the closing of the strait be a benefit to Canada........a little forward thinking at this time might be good, but I doubt the "leader" of the US has any foresight......


EDITORIAL: Close the Strait of Hormuz

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/13/close-the-strait-of-hormuz/

It's not as though Iran could act with impunity. The "close the strait" crisis scenario has been floating around military circles for decades. The U.S. military has been training for that eventuality since the 1980s. Contingency plans have been war-gamed repeatedly and are ready to be implemented immediately. The question is not whether the mullahs could attempt to close the strait, but how much of their navy and air force would be lost in the process. Their ships and submarines would be sunk, their on-shore anti-ship missile batteries would be bombed, their aircraft would be downed, and any small craft in the area would have to vacate immediately or face destruction as part of security measures against attacks like that on the USS Cole in 2000. Special-operations forces would seize their offshore oil derricks, and Marine landing forces would temporarily secure the Iranian side of the strait.

Such a provocative act would give support to those who would argue for a more comprehensive response, such as deep strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and regime command-and-control centers - which often would include leadership targets as well.

If Iran tried to close the strait, it would be the biggest mistake the mullahs ever made. While they are rattling their scimitars, the question the Islamic regime in Tehran needs to ask itself is: What happens if the United States decides to ban Iranian ships from the strait? If the U.S. Navy closes the Hormuz, it will stay that way.

Meanwhile, the media is saying that "old folks" are in danger of freezing" due to lack of government funds to pay for the high cost of energy. I wonder how that happened? Isn't the government spending more money today than they did a few years ago?

You'd think by now that "global warming" would have reduced the need for "winter fuel"

 

[Steve]

.a little forward thinking at this time might be good, but I doubt the "leader" of the US has any foresight......

after his decision on the xl pipeline i doubt he has the ability to think of anything but himself..

on the issue of the straits.. Iran is just trying to prop up oil prices by spreading fear...

Cortes also looked to China, noting that the Shanghai Composite was down 20 percent for the year.

"That is terrible news for crude," he said. "Crude is only being held up by Iran, and maybe that's enough if there's going to be an actual conflagration in the Strait of Hormuz.

"I'm going to bet that there won't be, and I used today's crude rally to fade it. One of the main reasons is weakness in China."