Before the recent war in Iraq, it’s loudest critics were singing that this war is all about the oil, and how greedy western interests want to get their greasy little mits on it.
So now that the co-alition has a strong hold, what IS happening with the Iraqi oil?
Please not, I am not interested in a debate, just want to keep it to the facts.
Upon preview, this response has some answers but more questions. Posting anyhow, they are related questions.
From general reading, efforts are being made to get it working again, but production is yet nowhere near what it was before the War (GWI? GW2?). Sabotage actions by hostiles. Maybe a month ago Iraqi oil reached a Mediterranean port via a pipeline.
Seems the efforts are being made by American companies using foreign (Indian, Philippine) personnel for the engineer/project manager levels (ref, on-line ad by Bechtel for said levels: I can dig it up if asked).
Paid for by American taxpayers on (some? all?) no-bid contracts, I haven’t seen it specified whether we taxpayers are doing this out of niceness or whether we will take the money out of Iraqi oil royalties when they get some.
Also see no reference to cost controls or who is to oversee the financing, and whether there are any mechanisms to deal with any cost issues.
See no indication that anyone expects Iraq to continue the oil production contracts they had signed with various nations (Russia, France, China) before the war. It appears they are discarded. Assuming an oil production company makes its profits in oil production efforts, that would mean that the American companies involved in oil production are getting what they want.
The issue of “breaking OPEC” is not happening yet (ref. current gas prices at the pump), but it would be expected unless the new, independent Iraqi regime joins OPEC.
Well, I can tell you some production figures. For this year, according to the EIA, Iraqi oil production (including lease condensate) was:
Jan: 2,555 thousand barrels/day
Feb: 2,490 thousand barrels/day
Mar: 1,373 thousand barrels/day
Apr: 53 thousand barrels/day
May: 293 thousand barrels/day
Jun: 453 thousand barrels/day
(from: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/ipsr/t11a.xls )
I don’t have anything newer linked from my scratchpad.
But whose pockets are getting lined from all this?
Are the profits staying in Iraq?
A different set of critics of the war than those that the OP cited made a different point regarding the oil. It had been suggested by the adminitration that the oil sales, newly freed from the “oil for food” restrictions, would then be available for use by Iraq to fund its own rebuilding. This separate set of critics pointed out at the time that such notions were ridiculous on their face. Iraq is a debtor nation and over 90% of the predicted oil revenues (which have not yet been met) are already committed to repayment of outstanding debt in the region, partly as a result of the first Gulf War and the war with Iran and partly from other borrowing. This is not debt that can be simply written off, since the creditors are the same people/banks/countries that Iraq must deal with in order to survive as a nation and none of those creditors can afford to simply write off those debts.
There are no profits from Iraqi oil. The rebuilding is being financed by U.S. taxpayers and the proceeds of any oil sale is being used to supplement the reconstruction funds with any future earnings already earmarked for relief services and debt.
Here’s some information to chew on in that, and other regards:
http://www.mees.com/postedarticles/politics/ArabPressReview/a46n32c02.htm
Hey, we are paying for it out of niceness!? Where the *** are the cost controls?
Here’s an AP status report on OPEC. It’s a brief rundown on prices, supply, Iraqi production, and forecasting for the near future.
“Sabotage of Iraq’s oil pipelines continues to crimp its exports, and earlier fears that Iraq might quickly restore its prewar output and glut the market with crude have all but disappeared.”