Letters / Most amusing
It was most amusing to read Gordon Harmer’s attempt (‘Conspiracy theories’, SN 3/8/14) to debunk Douglas Young’s letter, linking West of Shetland oil finds/reserves and the PM visit. He assumed that this was about Whirlwind/Lancaster which is indeed no secret.
It is possible that Douglas was referring to another rumoured big extension to reserves in the Clair area.
He attempted to show that the use of this information was tantamount to the manufacture of a conspiracy to enhance the Yes campaign’s argument.
He then declared his disbelief in conspiracy theories.
Gordon then went on to develop his own conspiracy theory – in which I presume he does not believe – namely that the oil companies conspire to keep the price of oil within a range that suits their interests.
It’s not too many years since crude oil dropped to less than 10 dollars a barrel, hardly to their liking, with the oil companies unable to influence the price in any way. World economics and markets are unpredictable, beyond any oil company or even any government’s influence, and behave in unpredictable ways.
In truth, in the extremely unlikely event of a field even as massive as Gwahar being found West of Shetland, it would only have a marginal effect on the price of crude, as world production vastly outstrips what any one field can produce.
James Sandison
Walls
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