9 Days Falling continues with Day III, Scene 13
It's about to be a very bad day aboard the tanker Princess Royal, as the veiled threat revealed during the recent Fairchild negotiations materializes in the Persian Gulf. In part, this scene is meant to show just how easily, and suddenly, the vital oil traffic can be disrupted in the Persian Gulf region, in spite of a heavy US military presence there. And any disruption would have immediate consequences that would be difficult to predict.
The situation that will soon unfold will bring the seafaring enterprise of Elena Fairchild & Company into quick collision with the plot lines featuring Ben Flack on his Nigerian Delta oil platform. Stress in one major market area is usually compensated for by increased production effort in others. When the hurricanes shut down US terminals in recent years, and gasoline prices spiked, European reserves were graciously sent to help keep Americans "happily motoring" as James Howard Kunstler might say.
But what would happen if two major market areas were to come under stress, where events suddenly impeded normal oil flows to the West? And what would happen if these events occured in tandem with more bad weather in hurricane country here in our own hemisphere? The fragile nature of our present energy system is clearly accented by the simple events depicted here, and it amazes me to this day that our nation is content to rely on this house of cards where our energy future is concerned, as if we could continue on with our present petroleum based model indefinitely.
