Scramble for Iraq’s oil begins as troops start to pull out
Posted in Email, Main Blog (All Posts) on February 24th, 2007 3:52 pm by HL
U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty
Uruknet
Excerpt
We are about to find out if the invasion of Iraq really was a war for oil. The country is on the verge of passing a petroleum law, which will set down rules for investing in its oil industry. That will set off a race among the foreign oil giants, scrambling for their slice of Iraq’s vast oil riches. Britain’s two world-leading oil companies, BP and Shell, both say they want to enter Iraq. Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Total, Russia’s Lukoil and the Chinese will also form part of the rush.
Even while the security situation in Iraq remains dire, it seems the prize will be just too great for the oil majors to resist. The country has proven reserves of 115 billion barrels of oil, around the same as Iran, but it is thought that its actual reserves could be anywhere up to 300 billion barrels – which would make it bigger than Saudi Arabia. Much of the west of Iraq remains unexplored.
John Teeling, chairman of Petrel Resources, the explorer listed on London’s AIM market which has had interests in Iraq since 1997, says: “Iraq has 70 discovered, undeveloped fields. You’d die for any one of them. Even the small ones have a billion barrels. If this isn’t the holy grail, it’s right next door to it.”
H.L.’s Take
This is part of the reason that Bush and Cheney are so hellbent on staying in Iraq, and even escalating the war, when everyone else including thier own advisors want to get out. There are still vast resources of oil that Bush has yet to steal over there, he wants to stay in Iraq forever, they are pumping oil out of unmetered wells, and no one knows where it is going. Bush wants to keep grabbing that oil until he leaves office and retires to his 98,000 acre ranch in Paraguay.
