Some info on where the Iraq oil money is going:
He says the CPA allocated the oil industry in Iraq “a zero capital budget” for this year with little change coming next year. Its control, he claims, has resulted in no new fields coming on-stream, the oil sector is in a chronic slide after the war, and the careless over-production of some Iraqi oil fields have destroyed their future potential, with some, according to Horsnell “now likely to deliver water rather than oil” due to the technical damage inflicted on them.
The transfer of power to the new interim Iraqi government is not expected to change much in the Iraqi oil sector. Iraqi oil is still technically state-owned, but the complex control network of oil revenue by the CPA is unlikely to be merely “handed over” to the new quasi-sovereign government.
There you have it. The pre-war promises that Iraq's oil revenue would belong to the Iraqis was another lie, at least if this article is accurate, and there's no reason to think not. At this point, who would they give the oil revenues to? There is no Iraqi government. And, this article is saying that the CPA has no intention of starting to hand over oil revenue to the new Iraqi government. It's their oil, they need those revenues to rebuild their country. Instead, the revenues are going straight into American and British oil interest's pockets. Someone like the NY Times should do an expose on where the Iraq oil revenue is really going? Anyone know who's making a killing off this revenue? Iraqi oil only costs approx $3.00 per barrel to extract. With oil prices hovering around $40.00 per barrel, that's a huge windfall of profits. Perhaps the biggest windfall in the history of the oil industry. Why did we invade Iraq?!? |
