[Peakoil] Iraqi oil ...

[Antony Barry]

On 15/01/2007, at 12:57 PM, Ken Rosie wrote:

> Future of Iraq: The spoils of war - How the West will make a  
> killing on Iraqi oil riches.
> Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are  
> about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil  
> companies under a controversial law which is expected to come  
> before the Iraqi parliament within days.

It will be interesting how many companies take it up as -

1. To operate in Iraq you need security and there apparently 20,000  
security contractors there now mostly supporting private firms. I  
suspect the death toll amongst the security firms is pretty high but  
they command a commensurate salary.

2. To operate for any period of time you need a stable government to  
deal with and it is not clear if the country will hold together let  
alone the Government.

3. Iraq even after this long period of occupation still is not  
producing as much oil as under Saadam. The pipelines keep being blown  
up by insurgents. They take a dim view of the United States stated  
aim to finance their occupation by selling Iraqi oil no doubt.

Tony

phone : 02 6241 7659 | mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
mobile: 04 1242 0397 | mailto:tony.barry at alianet.alia.org.au
http://tony-barry.emu.id.au


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