U.S. taxpayers footing bill for cheap Iraqi gasoline (Halliburton again)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2122995

<snip>

"Benzene is cheaper than water here," local journalist Qais Al-Bashir said Friday.

What it is costing American taxpayers is another story.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last April, Iraq's resuscitated oil industry has been unable to produce enough gasoline, cooking oil and other petroleum products to meet the country's needs.

Houston-based Halliburton Co., the contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair the dilapidated energy infrastructure, has been ordered to bring refined products into the country.

So far, U.S. taxpayers have spent some $562 million under the Halliburton contract to bring in gasoline and other fuels and make needed repairs to Iraq's gas distribution network, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. In fact, that effort has accounted for nearly half the $1.22 billion worth of work that Halliburton has performed in Iraq since the war.

[Pale_Rider]

1. 30 cents a gallon?

Outrageous mark-ups?!

Selling fuel at three times its state-set price about 100 yards from a line of 14 working pumps would be a hard dollar to earn in another economy.

But it works here in Iraq, because the low-octane, government-subsidized fuel sells for less than a dime a gallon. Even working-class Iraqis earning a few dollars a day are willing to pay outrageous mark-ups to avoid the line.

Well I guess we'll be seeing gas prices continue to go up!

[wellst0nev0ter]

2. I Wonder If The Author Is Related To Chris Hedges

Still, this is probably the best thing that happened to the Eye=Rackees - cheap gas on the U.S. taxpayer's dime.

[shockingelk]

3. cooking oil?

They use petroleum basked "cooking oil" in Iraq? Is this the same kind of "cooking oil" we're familiar with ... or perhaps they mean kerosene ....

[radfringe]

4. it's part of the tinkled-on economics of money

we get tinkled-on, they get the money