Cafferty on CNN - with a guest - missed the name.
Iraq's produstion off oil is half(?) of what it had been under Hussein..... from 3.5 billion barrels to 1.5 Billion we are supplying Iraq with gasoline - IMPORTING it - because all of Iraq's refineries were destroyed....
Due to insurgent attacks... We cannot secure oil production and infrastructure - and this is a lesson that others will apply if any "insurgency" spreads.......
This is a point rarely mentioned in all the news from Iraq. The oil was supposed to pay for the rebuilding...... and we're not getting the oil out. This does not bode well for the future of Iraq - or the world's dependence on oil.
We are losing over half the production the world HAD been getting from Iraq before the US invasion - with little progress being made to restore it.
Add this to the declines being reported in other producers - and the fact that the faster you pump from fields the faster you kill them and the less you eventually get out... NOT good. Again, read "Twilight in the Desert." (And if anything happens to the Saudi fields they could be off line for a LONG time - ther eare claims that the Saudis themselves have their infrastructure mined for demolition with dirty bombs - designed to deny use of these fields to others.)
Spokesman: "Of course the oil industry will say there are enough reserves - OPEC is pumping every barrel they can." If the Saudis can pump more why aren't they?
Follow up - heating costs to rise this winter....now a focus on conservation.....
A couple major points here:
Iraq's oil production was supposed to help pay for the rebuilding of Iraq (and our "occupation" costs). It's not happening. AND the insurgency has targeted the oil industry there blowing pipelines on a regular basis. Given how dispersed this infrastructure is, you CANNOT protect all of it. So.... lose, lose in this focus. We're footing the bill, cannot get any "reimbursement" and what production ther is can be readliy interrupted and attacked.
Meanwhile the world's second largest reserves are effectively in a limited production mode with little hope for any immediate change. Other producers - trying to make up the slack - have ramped up production. BUT this will actually HURT the long term - lowering the amount of oil that you can get from fields (faster production has the effect of lowering the percentage of reserves that can be extracted - you NEVER get all the oil out of a field; moderate production rates exptend the life of a field and gets more oil out of the field before pressure dies and oil cannot be forced out).
And meanwhile, US offshore production in the Gulf may be down for quite some time until wells and pipelines can be checked for damage - and repaired.
NONE of this is good news - regarding the future for Iraq - and the US and suddenly Bush is saying "conserve"......
Anyone have further info on the oil industry in Iraq?