Return to Transcripts main page
CNN 10
Recent Rise and Fall in Oil Prices; Project to Learn More About Sharks; Experiment Involving Rats and the Game of Hide and Seek
Aired September 18, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: This is CNN 10. Welcome to everyone watching around the world. My name is Carl Azuz, happy you`re joining us for a look
at international events. Oil has been front and center in headlines and stock markets since an attack was carried out against oil facilities in
Saudi Arabia last Saturday. No one was hurt but Saudi Arabia exports more oil than any other country and half of its production was temporarily
disrupted. That caused a surge in oil prices when international stock markets opened on Monday. Oil is sold by the barrel. Each barrel is equal
to 42 gallons. A barrel of Brent crude oil, a world standard, was selling for around $60 a barrel last Friday before the attack happened.
Afterward on Monday, the price of Brent crude had risen to almost $72 at one point. That was its biggest increase in history and it had an impact
on stock markets around the world, but the higher price didn`t hold. Yesterday it had settled back down to less than $64 a barrel. The reasons
why? The Reuters News Agency reported that Saudi Arabian oil production would be back to normal in two to three weeks. And on Tuesday the Middle
Eastern country`s energy minister said that Saudi Arabia would use its reserves around the world to make sure its oil exports would stay the same
despite the damaged facility. So stock market investors saw all this as good news for the worlds oil supply and prices decreased.
Meantime, an international investigation is trying to figure out who conducted the attack. A United States government official told CNN that
circuit boards from one of the weapons used have been recovered and that the indicate that both drones and missiles were used in the attack. The
official says Iran is a suspect though that country denies being involved. We mentioned that Saudi Arabia has oil reserves available to decrease the
impact of a disruption like this. The U.S. also has storage facilities known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. President Donald Trump said
yesterday that he doesn`t think oil from that will be needed right now but he indicated that the U.S. is prepared to open the reserve if necessary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States might be one of the world`s largest producers of oil but that doesn`t stop it from keeping a huge back up stash
of crude. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve or the SPR is the world`s largest emergency storage of oil. It can hold up to 713 million barrels of
crude providing several months worth of import protection to the U.S. The U.S. government says the oil reserve acts as a deterrent to oil imports
being suddenly cut off. The SPR is a government complex of four sides stretching along the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast. The oil is stored
2,000 to 4,000 feet underground. America`s emergency reserve came about after the 1973 to `74 Arab Oil Embargo. In 1975, President Gerald Ford
signed a law creating the emergency reserve. Only the U.S. president can order the SPR to be used and so far this has happened just three times.
First when the United States attacked Iraq in 1991, President Bush announced that the decision to release oil was made to help minimize market
disruptions. The reserve was again used in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina`s devastation of the oil infrastructure along the Gulf of Mexico. With the
2011 civil unrest in Libya disrupting crude oil supply, the SPR was tapped yet again. A total of 60 million barrels of oil were released on the world
market. The oil drawn from the emergency reserve has to be pulled out of storage first and then sold on the market and this can take about two
weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. When Great White sharks are born they are known as what? Pups, calves, nymphs or hatchlings. Baby sharks, doo, doo, doo,
doo, doo, doo, are known as pups and from the moment they`re born they`re on their own.
Despite the fact that they`re probably the most well known species of shark, there`s not a lot known about their lives. Everything from their
social behavior to their mating habits, to where they give birth is a mystery and scientists also don`t know why they occasionally attack humans.
Whether they mistake us for food or just checking to see if we are or if they`re just hungry and there`s not much else around to eat. What is
known, is that humans are sharks biggest enemy. That`s why researchers in today`s great big story are trying to study, monitor and conserve these
animals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you`re afraid of coming down and - - and going swimming in the ocean because of sharks, you should be terrified to make a
piece of toast. Four hundred people died last year from defective toasters whereas less than 10 did from sharks. This is the first large shark
expedition like this in the western Gulf. We`ll be tagging hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks and mako sharks trying to understand how they`re
leveraging the Gulf and their birthing, mating and full migratory patterns. We`ll be getting up everyday just before dawn. A fishing team will be
going out getting all of our lines rigged and ready to go and then we`ll get the ship in position with the lift in the water.
And we`ll looking to capture, bring sharks back to the lift, lift them up out of the water and once we do that a whole team of scientists from a half
dozen institutions will circle around the shark. And we`ll conduct 12 research projects in about 15 minutes then release the shark and open
source the tracking to the world so that everyone can follow it. What we`re finding is these massive sharks have huge, huge movements across the
ocean. We have one of these White sharks, Lydia, who`s traveled over 3,500 miles in just two years, very, very regular for these sharks to be swimming
1,000 miles a month, which is why it`s so important to figure out where they go.
We`re losing 200,000 sharks a day for shark fin soup, 100 million a year. You know, people need to understand an ocean with no sharks means an ocean
with no fish. They are the lion, the balance keeper of the ocean and if they are not there the whole food chain collapses. This is a simple
battle. We`ve got to solve the puzzle of these sharks lives to make sure they flourish and make a difference for the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: So while they`re trying to learn about sharks, researchers at a German university are trying to learn about rats. It`s been well
documented that these animals can learn tricks like other pets. But can they learn to play games like hide and seek? Rewarding rats by tickling
them whenever they hid from scientists or found them, researchers say the animals not only learned to play they learned strategies like choosing to
hide in opaque boxes instead of clear ones and staying quieter while they were hiding. Researchers also say the rats squealed whenever they won so
it`s possible they understood what was happening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes (inaudible) that rats engage in simple forms of play like, rough and tumble play. A bit like a boys wrestling kind of
thing. (ph) But we wanted to see if they can also (inaudible) more complex games and (inaudible) hide and seek came to mind. We were putting in this
dog box and closed this dog box and then (inaudible) opened and then the animals (ph) knew that it was their turn to seek. What they would do is
they would search (inaudible) the room. They would come and look for us and they (inaudible) would find us a long time (ph), or what they would do
is they would memorize (inaudible). So if you use the (inaudible) hiding place (inaudible) find you in no time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Before we bounce, we`d like to draw your CNN attention to an inflatable castle that would make the ultimate party rental for a super
sweet 16. This is the biggest bounce house on earth. It covers 10,000 square feet which makes it more than four times bigger than the average
American home. Inside you`ll find everything from a basketball court and a ball pit to an obstacle course and a dance stage. Of course, if gravity is
weighing you down this can make you rebound by putting spring in every step along your moonwalk. On an inflatable estate that`s an undeniable escape
where you`ll be walking on air right where you want to "jump jump". As the king of the castle that has its very own fan club assuming the $25 ticket
fee doesn`t completely deflate your wallet. I`m Carl Azuz and that`s CNN 10.
END
