The Financial Post has a great article from a few days ago about how $90-100 for a barrel of oil has changed power levels of certain countries. It is a very interesting read, here are some excerpts;
“As oil was on its way to US$100 in 2007, it piled wealth and power on big oil producers Venezuela, Iran, Russia, the Arabian Gulf and, perhaps most notably, Canada, while taking it away from big consumer nations such as the United States.”
For Ron Brenneman, the CEO of Petro-Canada, one telling event illustrating oil’s new power was when some of the world’s top central bankers flew to Canada this summer to visit the oilsands after holding their annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo.”
“Normally, central bankers are looking at money flows – trade balances, inbalances, that sort of thing,” Mr. Brenneman said. “They have come to the realization now that oil flows and imbalances have become so important that they needed to get a better understanding of that. There was in that group some skepticism about whether the oilsands was real or not because it’s becoming a bigger player in the whole worldwide supply. Of the 20 central bankers, 12 of them came up on the weekend to go on a tour. That was quite telling to me.”
