Navy wants commando ‘mothership’ in Middle East 27JAN12 & Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries September 2011 Import Highlights 29NOV11

AGAIN the American taxpayers are being asked to put our troops in harms way and to pay for protecting oil exports from the Persian Gulf, oil exports we are not dependent on, but the American oil cartel is dependent on for their corporate profits, and the economies of Europe, Southeast Asia, India, Japan and South Korea are dependent on. Let those who need this oil provide the forces necessary to keep it flowing.  Big oil and the military-industrial complex in the U.S. dictate American foreign policy in the region, it is nothing on their corporate books for their greed and willingness to sacrifice American lives, spill American blood for oil.Let those who need this oil provide the forces necessary to keep it flowing. Let the oil producing nations of the Persian Gulf pay for it. Instead of continuing to waste American lives and tax dollars on this oil profit protection racket and subsidizing the military-industrial complex (because war is big business) we should eliminate corporate welfare subsidies for big oil and gas in the U.S., invest those hundreds of millions of dollars into the proven renewable energy technology available now and more into upgrading our energy grid to effectively distribute energy and into R&D into improving and developing more renewable energy and conservation programs. The propaganda of big oil, gas and the military-industrial complex deceiving the American people, their ownership of too many American politicians in D.C. and throughout the states and their insatiable greed keep us dependent on imported oil. In return we get a "mother ship" in the Persian Gulf, another platform for launching the caskets of American troops to their families in the U.S. 
Here is the Washington Post article on the commando "mother ship" followed by the latest available from the Dept of Energy showing the top 15 oil exporters to the U.S.

The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.
In response to requests from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.
Special Operations forces are a key part of the Obama administration’s strategy to make the military leaner and more agile as the Pentagon confronts at least $487 billion in spending cuts over the next decade.
Lt. Cmdr. Mike Kafka, a spokesman for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, declined to elaborate on the floating base’s purpose or to say where, exactly, it will be deployed in the Middle East. Other Navy officials acknowledged that they were moving with unusual haste to complete the conversion and send the mothership to the region by early summer.
Navy documents indicate that it could be headed to the Persian Gulf, where Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for much of the world’s oil supply. A market survey proposal from the Military Sealift Command, dated Dec. 22 and posted online, states that the floating base needed to be delivered to the Persian Gulf.
Other contract documents do not specify a location but say the mothership would be used to “support mine countermeasure” missions. Defense officials have said that if Iran did attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, it would rely on mines to obstruct the waterway.
With a large naval base in Bahrain, and one or two aircraft carrier groups usually assigned to the region, the Navy has a substantial presence in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters. Adding the mothership would do relatively little to bolster U.S. maritime power overall, but it could play an instrumental role in secretive commando missions offshore.
The deployment of the floating base could also mark a return to maritime missions for SEAL teams, which for the past decade have spent most of their time on land in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Other details of the project became public Tuesday when the Military Sealift Command posted a bid request to retrofit the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport docking ship, on a rush-order basis.
Until December, the Navy had planned to retire the Ponce and decommission it in March after 41 years of service. Among other missions, it was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea last year in support of NATO’s air war over Libya.
Instead, the ship will be modified into what the military terms an Afloat Forward Staging Base. Kafka said it would be used to support mine-clearance ships, smaller patrol ships and aircraft.
The documents posted by the Military Sealift Command in December, however, specify that the mothership will be rebuilt so that it can also serve as a docking station for several small high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEAL teams.
Among the vessels listed are Mark 5 Zodiacs, inflatable boats that can carry up to 15 passengers and can roll up into bags, and seven-meter-long Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats, which can carry an entire SEAL squad.
SEAL teams also deploy from regular warships, but most vessels in the Navy’s fleet must patrol or move around on a regular basis. A mothership can stay in one spot for weeks or months, effectively serving as a floating base for commandos as they monitor coastal areas or prepare for amphibious operations.
The U.S. Special Operations Command has sought a transportable floating base for several years, saying that a mothership would expand the range of commando squads operating from small speedboats, particularly in remote coastal areas.
Defense officials said the Ponce will serve as a stopgap measure until the Navy can build a new Afloat Forward Staging Base from scratch. In budget documents released Thursday, the Pentagon said it would fund that project starting next year.
The floating base also could be suited to the coast of Somalia, a failed state that is home to an al-Qaeda affiliate and gangs of pirates. A mothership there would give SEALs or other commandos more flexibility in missions such as Wednesday’s rescue of a pair of American and Danish hostages who had been held for months by Somali pirates.
The term “mothership” is also commonly used to describe a vessel used by Somali pirates. After hijacking a large container or cargo vessel, pirate crews often turn it into a floating base to extend the range of their skiffs or speedboats far into the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and Persian Gulf.
U.S. military officials declined to say what prompted them to give the Ponce a sudden new lease on life. But contract and bidding documents underscore the urgency of the project.
One no-bid contract for engineering work states that the military was waiving normal procurement rules because any delay presented a “national security risk.” Other contract bids are due Feb. 3. The Navy wants the conversion work to begin 10 days later on the Ponce, which is docked in Virginia Beach.

Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries

September 2011 Import Highlights:  Released November 29, 2011

ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html
Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in September 2011 has been released and it shows that three countries exported more than 1,000 thousand barrels per day to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 69 percent of United States crude oil imports in September while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 88 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top five sources of US crude oil imports for September were Canada (2,324 thousand barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1,465 thousand barrels per day), Mexico (1,099 thousand barrels per day), Venezuela (759 thousand barrels per day) and Nigeria (529 thousand barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Colombia (510 thousand barrels per day), Iraq (403 thousand barrels per day), Ecuador (299 thousand barrels per day), Angola (283 thousand barrels per day) and Russia (275 thousand barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 9,006 thousand barrels per day in September, which is a decrease of (16) thousand barrels per day from August 2011.

Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in September, exporting 2,829 thousand barrels per day to the United States, which is an increase from last month (2,637 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Saudi Arabia with 1,479 thousand barrels per day.

Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries) (Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country	Sep-11	Aug-11	YTD 2011	Sep-10	YTD 2010
CANADA	2,324	2,240	2,157	1,937	1,971
SAUDI ARABIA	1,465	1,075	1,180	1,082	1,072
MEXICO	1,099	1,150	1,113	1,108	1,132
VENEZUELA	759	806	893	919	928
NIGERIA	529	854	826	1,107	1,018
COLOMBIA	510	365	364	308	328
IRAQ	403	637	473	422	464
ECUADOR	299	303	203	229	215
ANGOLA	283	311	323	404	413
RUSSIA	275	252	246	286	295
BRAZIL	163	213	225	177	270
KUWAIT	145	165	164	172	204
ALGERIA	139	140	204	366	337
CHAD	74	32	54	30	14
OMAN	72	52	39	0	0

Total Imports of Petroleum (Top 15 Countries) (Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country	Sep-11	Aug-11	YTD 2011	Sep-10	YTD 2010
CANADA	2,829	2,637	2,670	2,479	2,537
SAUDI ARABIA	1,479	1,075	1,187	1,093	1,086
MEXICO	1,192	1,185	1,218	1,254	1,260
VENEZUELA	806	906	979	1,008	1,007
RUSSIA	592	585	609	648	624
NIGERIA	580	892	876	1,174	1,053
COLOMBIA	529	395	395	363	360
IRAQ	404	637	473	422	464
ECUADOR	305	309	205	229	217
ANGOLA	304	331	335	417	422
ALGERIA	291	298	396	543	512
VIRGIN ISLANDS	189	185	189	302	261
BRAZIL	188	228	240	181	289
ARUBA	149	81	79	0	0
KUWAIT	145	165	165	172	206

Note: The data in the tables above exclude oil imports into the U.S. territories.