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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rollcast... who wrote (1453)	1/2/2003 12:06:58 AM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

DIVIDED OVER OIL in Iraq Some U.S. officials have advocated seizing control of key Iraqi oil production facilities for security purposes and to avert major oil market disruptions, but that proposal has come under fire from others in the administration and outside experts who fear a backlash from Arab allies in the region. "The question is what we can legally do to boost output," the official added. Boosting Iraq's output would provide extra funding for reconstruction and could benefit the United States and other Western oil-consuming countries by reducing oil prices. Iraq sits on top of the world's second largest oil reserves, but war and a decade of sanctions has withered its oil infrastructure and official exports. A recent report by the James Baker Institute at Rice University and the Council on Foreign Relations estimated it would take $5 billion to bring the Iraqi oil industry back to pre-1990s production levels, in addition to $3 billion in annual operating costs. Last week the State Department hosted a meeting of Iraqi opposition members who discussed the future of Iraq's oil and energy sector in a post-Saddam era. Analysts have said international oil companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell and others would want to take part in a rehabilitation of the country's oil industry and have already drawn up plans to do so.