Wednesday, May 21, 2008

It's not the Oil


Amid all the distractions, you may have missed this story from The Times:

Iraq could have largest oil reserves in the world
The Times
Sonia Verma in Sharm el-Sheikh
May 20, 2008

Iraq dramatically increased the official size of its oil reserves yesterday after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabia’s and be the largest in the world.

The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister told The Times that new exploration showed that his country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, with as much as 350 billion barrels. The figure is triple the country’s present proven reserves and exceeds that of Saudi Arabia’s estimated 264 billion barrels of oil.

Barham Salih said that the new estimate had been based on recent geological surveys and seismic data compiled by “reputable, international oil companies . . . This is a serious figure from credible sources.”

The Iraqi Government has yet to approve a national oil law that would allow foreign companies to invest. Mr Salih said that the delay was damaging Iraq’s ability to profit from oil output, robbing the country of potentially huge revenues. With oil selling for more than $125 dollars a barrel and demand rising, Mr Salih is frustrated that Iraq still struggles over the establishment of a regulatory framework.

“There is a real debate in the Government and among political leaders about the type of oil management structures we should have. I am for liberalising this sector and allowing the private sector to come in to develop these vast resources.”

BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Total have been queuing for rights to exploit Iraqi reserves. Mr Salih confirmed that Iraq was negotiating the outlines of two-year deals with some of the companies. He was optimistic that a draft law could be approved in the near future.

“We need to recognise after so many decades of mismanagement of the oil industry that we need to call a spade a spade,” he told a group of delegates at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh.

“We can regulate it, but we need private investment to develop Iraq’s production capacities.” He said that Iraq was pumping 2.5 million barrels of oil a day at present, earning about $70 billion (£35.9 billion) in revenue this year. more

As I walk around the old silver ruins in my mountain home in the state of San Luis Potosi, it boggles my mind to think of the labor (slave) and the effort that went into building the mine shafts, the roads, the giant walls, and the mansions that once existed when the Spanish came to the New World. (it wasn't new to the Huicholes)

With their Friars and Priests, and their civil engineers, they built churches and factories, and railroads and government buildings.

But, I imagine that the then King Phillip of Spain wasn't nearly as politically correct as we are today.

He probably never told anyone that his occupation forces in the New World were there to free the natives from the oppression of their brutal dictators.

He probably never told anyone that it's not the silver.

For it most definitely was. It was silver and gold that built his ships and his armies. It was silver and gold that made Spain rich and powerful. And they had come to the Americas... to mine it.

Yesterday, oil closed at almost 130.00. Even still, our oil man POTUS and our oil service man VPOTUS would tell us that"it's not the oil".

In the old days, it wasn't against international law to invade a country for its resources, for there was none. In these modern, more refined days, you have to make a pretense.

It's been somewhat common knowledge that the western Anbar province was a major unproduced region in Iraq and that these riches, perhaps 200 billion barrels worth, is the prize at the wrong end of our guns, and our blood and our empty public coffers.

But common knowledge is somewhat uncommon these days.

Because, you see , It's not the oil.
.
And if you believe that,
.
they've got another yarn to sell you.
.
It's not the oil.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is time for the US to take the gloves off and establish a puppet Iraqi government, create a national army and police force under our command and control, assassinate any and all opposition political and religious leaders, consolidate all government function within the security of our new embassy complex, create a 12 mile fenced security barrier around the Iraq borders, establish three or four strategic mega military bases, level any urban neighborhoods or small villages not sympathetic to our presence, destroy any dissenting local press, establish a pro-America educational system for indoctrination of future generations and secure the oil production contracts for US and British corporate exploration and development.

Oh, I guess we are already doing that aren't we?

11:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

May 21,2008

Peak Oil And Famine:
Four Billion Deaths
By Peter Goodchild

29 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org

At some point in the early years of the 21st century, there will be a clash of two giant forces: overpopulation and oil depletion. That much has been known for a long time. It is also well known that population must eventually decline in order to match the decline in oil production. A further problem, however, is that it will be impossible to get those two giant forces into equilibrium in any gentle fashion, because of a matter that is rarely considered: that in every year that has gone by — and every year that will arrive — the population of the earth is automatically adjusted so that it is almost exactly equal to its carrying capacity. We are always barely surviving. Population growth is soaring, whereas oil production is plunging. If, at the start of any year, the world’s population is greater than its carrying capacity, only simple arithmetic is needed to see that the difference between the two numbers means that mortality will be above the normal by the end of that year. In fact, over the course of the 21st century there will be about 4 billion deaths (probably about 3.6, to be more precise) above normal.

Dan

3:37 PM  

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