Iraq's Oil Future Not Looking Bright

[DuctapeFatwa]

It was supposed to be the linchpin of Iraq's bright future: oil, and plenty of it, pooled in great reservoirs below the surface of this tormented land.

But some 250 guerrilla attacks have blown apart pipelines and other oil infrastructure, squandering between $7 billion and $12 billion in potential export revenue. Experts say the losses, as much as $490 for each of the 26 million Iraqis, have hamstrung Iraq's development.

The country's sputtering oil revenues have fallen far short of prewar Bush administration predictions that Iraq could finance its own reconstruction. "The country has been deprived of badly needed revenue to rebuild infrastructure, jump-start the economy and alleviate high unemployment," said Jamal Qureshi, an Iraq oil-sector analyst for Washington-based consultancy PFC Energy.

More than $1 billion in Iraqi oil revenues also flowed to U.S. and British firms, who landed expensive contracts from the now defunct U.S.-led occupation authority, often without competitive bidding.Halliburton Co., the oil-services company that Vice President Dick Cheney once ran, landed 60 percent of the large contracts financed by Iraqi oil funds, audits show.

http://www.aina.org/news/20041024124826.htm

[Cocoa]

1. there's oil in Iraq?

how 'bout that! Just a bonus I guess.

[radwriter0555]

2. There was never any intention to put iraq's oil ON the market, the point

is to keep it FROM the market, in order to restrict and control availability and continue to gouge and profiteer and exploit.

[cliss]

3. Ah, yes.......The Oil......

I always thought of the Iraqi Oil as just another mirage which moves further away, the closer you get....has something to do with refraction and light...

It proves how simple-minded those Einsteins in the White House were. They arrogantly thought all they needed to do was march in and start pumping it out.

Maybe they thought the Iraqis would just stand by and watch the whole spectacle? It gives new meaning to the word brain-damaged. And it's frightening to think that THEY and they alone have complete dominion of the world.

Methinks this country has had too much success at this kind of thing, to lead to such radical thinking.

[Moderator]

4. Duplicate topic--Please continue discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=927549