WEST ASIA DESTINED TO LOSE PETRO-DOLLARS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Till early  fifties, we had seen the Iranis selling scissors to the litigants in Indian courts. Except for the Haj pilgrimage, West Asia was not a destination for any other purposes for the non-Arabs from other parts of the world. Suddenly by then, exploration of petrol and natural gas started and the region overnight turned to be opulent. Within next twenty years, the oil producing countries of the area started dictating terms to the international politics. Even at that time, the USA and the erstwhile USSR were having rich oil reserves. But they wisely decided to conserve their own stock and purchase petrol from West Asia, which , as a matter of fact was being exploited and refined by the Western countries.

With this opulence, in several major countries, it was believed that the Almighty was over kind on the region and so they started spending this wealth on the furtherance of Islam. This trend gave birth to a generation which started coming heavy on non-believers. Communal harmony disappeared from their dictionary. They started financing Islamic groups of different countries who believed in terrorism and Jehad. If any country opposed, they would stop petrol supply. Particularly the developing countries were held at ransom. This sent a strong warning to the powerful developed countries, who silently decided to explore their own indigenous stock to teach a lesson to the oil rich Arabs.

America, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and several other countries of Latin America increased their own production as a result of which dependence on West Asia started diminishing. The USA has almost gone ahead of the richest petrol producing country, Saudi Arabia. Russia is already self-dependent. The US has adopted a new fracking technology in which hydrolic fracking gives more petrol and costs much less than the stuff of old suppliers. Moreover, more and more countries are going for solar, wind and other non-conventional sources of energy. If it gained momentum and the Gulf countries refused to de-escalate prices, the region will once again be pushed to the dark age of poverty.