US Oil And Gas Industry -- Too Successful Too Fast -- March 26, 2015

From SeekingAlpha:

• Facing pressure from the drop in oil prices, General Electric has increased the planned job cuts at its Lufkin oilfield equipment unit from 330 to 575.
• "As a result of increasingly challenging market conditions, we are announcing additional workforce reductions in our Lufkin business," said Kristin Schwarz, a GE Oil & Gas spokeswoman.
• GE bought oilfield pump maker Lufkin Industries for about $3.3B in 2013.
• GE -1% premarket

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Iran Vs Saudi Arabia

I posted the following earlier this morning (a continuation, pretty much a repeat of what I've been posting the past two days):

ISIS/Syria/Iran/Yemen now have Saudi Arabia surrounded (with one trivial exception: Oman). 

Iraq is pretty much neutralized / occupied as far as Iran is concerned. Iran's rear flank is secure. 

Once John Kerry and Barack Obama remove the sanctions on Iran, Iran becomes a much bigger threat to its neighbors in the Mideast. 

Most importantly: the Iranian mullahs will have the money they need to pursue their regional goals. Remember: it's called the Persian Gulf, not the Saudi Arabian Gulf. 

The relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia was once a solid relationship (and, of course, that was true with regard to the Shah of Iran, also). Saudi Arabia could not have missed the fact that the Obama administration has thrown the Israelis under the bus AND will soon conclude an "agreement" with Iran allowing the latter unfettered development of their nuclear "energy for peaceful uses" program. Saudi Arabia does not have a warrior culture; without US support it cannot defend itself. As important as Saudi Arabia is to the stability of the western world, the fact that the US has thrown Israel under the bus certainly suggests to princes that with regard to the present regime in Washington (DC), nothing is off the table.

So, now I see this headline: Saudi Arabia in a proxy war against Iran by attacking Yemen. A reader wrote me earlier this morning: Saudi is in a fight for its life. I can't disagree.

Back on March 18, 2015, I asked, "what could possibly go wrong?" I guess we are finding out.

On/about March 14, 2015, the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was shut down due to security concerns.

Back on February 6, 2015, the fathomless ignorance of President Obama -- the WSJ -- on Yemen ...

January 23, 2015, Saudi Arabia is in deep doo-doo.

September 5, 2014, Saudi Arabia is in trouble.

I posted "Saudi Arabia is in trouble" on September 5, 2014. Today, September 6, 2014, it is announced that Saudi is building the "Great Wall Of Arabia":

Saudi Arabia has inaugurated a multilayered fence along its northern borders, as part of efforts to secure the kingdom's vast desert frontiers against infiltrators and smugglers, state media said.

King Abdullah announced late Friday the launch of the first stage of a border security programme, covering 900 kilometres (560 miles) of the northern frontier, SPA state news agency reported.

SPA did not name Iraq, Saudi Arabia's neighbour to the north, referring only to the northern frontier, but the two countries' common border stretches over 800 kilometres (500 miles).

There was another post that I wanted to link but can't find it now, but I think the point is made. 

Remember this from your high school history, these two bullets?

• Europe was a powder keg.
• The fuse was lit with the assassination of Archduke Prince Franz Ferdinand.

Minimal substitutions:

• The mideast was always a powder keg.
• The fuse was lit with Barack Obama's "Arab Spring" speech in Cairo.

Yemen.

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The Mideast In Free Fall

The note above was posted at the time of the original post (see time/date stamp).

A day later, this article was posted over at Politico: "Obama's Mideast Free Fall." 

Barack Obama faces a slew of Middle East crises that some call the worst in a generation, as new chaos from Yemen to Iraq — along with deteriorating U.S.-Israeli relations — is confounding the president’s efforts to stabilize the region and strike a nuclear deal with Iran.

The meltdown has Obama officials defending their management of a region that some call impossible to control, even as critics say U.S. policies there are partly to blame for the spreading anarchy. “If there’s one lesson this administration has learned, from President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech through the Arab Spring, it’s that when it comes to this region, nothing happens in a linear way — and precious little is actually about us, which is a hard reality to accept,” said a senior State Department official.

Not everyone is so forgiving. “We’re in a goddamn free fall here,” said James Jeffrey, who served as Obama’s ambassador to Iraq and was a top national security aide in the George W. Bush White House.

For years, members of the Obama team has grappled with the chaotic aftermath of the Arab Spring. But of late they have been repeatedly caught off-guard, raising new questions about America’s ability to manage the dangerous region.

Obama officials were surprised earlier this month, for instance, when the Iraqi government joined with Iranian-backed militias to mount a sudden offensive aimed at freeing the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Nor did they foresee the swift rise of the Iranian-backed rebels who toppled Yemen’s U.S.-friendly government and disrupted a crucial U.S. counterterrorism mission against Al Qaeda there. Both situations took dramatic new turns this week.

The U.S. announced its support for a Saudi-led coalition of 10 Sunni Arab nations that began bombing the Houthis, while Egypt threatened to send ground troops — a move that could initiate the worst intra-Arab war in decades. Meanwhile, the U.S. launched airstrikes against ISIL in Tikrit after originally insisting it would sit out that offensive. U.S. officials had hoped to avoid coordination with Shiite militias under the direct control of Iranian commanders in the country.

Now the U.S. is in the strange position of fighting ISIL alongside Iran at the same time it backs the Sunni campaign against Iran’s allies in Yemen — even as Secretary of State John Kerry hopes to seal a nuclear deal with Iran in Switzerland within days. 

I've long forgotten whether Politico is left- / right-leaning, but I always thought Politico was supportive of President Obama. Might be wrong, but this is a pretty scathing report card for President Obama's foreign policy.

Folks still supporting President Obama's Mideast policy are not paying attention.