Iraq Enjoys Some of World's Cheapest Gas (5 Cents a Gallon)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/08/17/international/i101243D80.DTL

Motorists struggling with high gas prices in the United States and Europe may be surprised to learn that consumers in Iraq pay as little as 5 cents a gallon, according to the International Monetary Fund's first assessment of the Iraqi economy in 25 years.

Thanks to generous government subsidies on petroleum products — which the IMF criticized as a threat to the country's fragile economy — Iraq has some of the cheapest gas in the world.

By contrast, Americans pay about $2.55 a gallon and Britons pay $6.24. Iraqis also pay much less for a gallon of regular gasoline than in nearby countries such as Iran (38 cents), Jordan ($1.89) and Syria ($1.74).

Even the many Iraqis who pay higher, black-market prices at the pump often make money by smuggling gasoline into neighboring countries such as Turkey, according to the International Monetary Fund's 62-page report released Monday.

Play dirty like the Repukes. Spread this one around to the Bushbots. I know the rational arguments we here at DU can give, but remember the Bushbots are not rational!

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I thought we (i.e. taxpayers) were paying $3 a gal to Halliburton

who buys it from Kuwait at $2, so they can resell it cheap to the Iraqis to assist in their "reconstruction".

[phantom power]

2. Maybe. If they can get it.

Last I read, they have to go thru gas-lines that make the OPEC embargoes look like a picnic.

[lumpy]

4. Yes, reports have said that gas is scarce

for Iraqis. Also pictures of long lines at few gas stations in Iraq. Iraqis are not 'enjoying' a damn thing like gas, electricity, clean water and peace.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Also, waiting in line for gas in Iraq makes one a target

as evidenced by the recent suicide bombing of a gas station

http://www.command-post.org/2_archives/019685.html

[skip fox]

3. What the heck??

This crowd in the administration is so damned predictable. We're paying the highest gas prices we ever have with no end in sight while financing an unnecessary war during which the gas prices are kept low in order to pacify the populas we have enraged. Damn.

Meanwhile I heard that oil and gas companies are raking in profits. (According to Randi Rhodes.)

[Javaman]

5. Actually this is really old news. Infact most of Iraq no longer pays...

5 cents a gallon. This was reported over a year go.

Now the price varies through out the country.

There was a huge price hike last year. As a result there was a major spike in violence.

However, I don't know if they dropped the price back down, as a result.

[FloridaPat]

6. Our gov't is subsidizing Iraq oil and thanks to the new energy bill

is subsidizing the oil companies directly. We get to break in the middle.

[Sabriel]

8. If that bit of news is supposed to make me want to join the NG,

it ain't working.