There are many stories, theories, and postulates about why Bush II invaded Iraq.One theory is that it was done for oil, seeing as how Iraq has the second or third largest reservoirs of oil on the planet.
The official story was that everyone in the whole wide world just knew that Iraq had so many WMD that it was a clear and present danger to the United States.
The fact that not everyone believed that, the fact that no WMD were found there, has faded into the memory hole of time.
The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster has taken everyone's eye off Iraq, which makes BP happy in one sense.
Now that the BP oil barons have been given the green light to handle "Iraq's oil", they are too busy there to help much in the Gulf of Mexico:
Rumaila, the workhorse of Iraq's oil industry and its biggest oilfield, is buzzing with activity as executives, engineers and drillers begin a massive overhaul to nearly triple its million-barrels-per-day output.(Gulf Oil News, emphasis added). The reality that Iraq has dysfunctional government, but it has a booming oil industry, indicates the actual priority does in not?
At the airport in Basra, capital of southern Iraq, staff struggled to process the unprecedented numbers of people arriving to join the country's nascent oil boom.
Iraq may be struggling to form a new government almost three months after elections, but oil firms chosen to carry out the biggest oilfield development projects on the planet were ploughing ahead with investments that could take the country into the elite of global oil producers.
And, though the old administration failed to pass a new law to govern an energy sector considered vital to rebuilding the country after years of war and sanctions, Iraq's oil industry is booming.
"The companies are not going to sit back and just wait," said Raad Alkadiri of Washington's PFC Energy.
"Iraq's government has itself encouraged this by saying ‘Keep going and the politics will sort itself out'."
The Rumaila project is the most advanced and was the first Baghdad signed, with BP and China's CNPC taking it on.
Bush II said we went in there to get rid of WMD and to replace the Al Qaeda supporting Iraqi government with a democracy.
Meanwhile, no "respectable" establishment journalist, pundit, or politician would admit that all this raises suspicions that the Iraq war had nothing to do with making a "good Iraqi government", or that it had anything to do with oil addiction.
That is because they are clearly in denial.
The narrative is that BP gets the Iraqi oil after the U.S. with bushies in the lead spends trillions killing hundreds of thousands of people.
Then BP leaves the U.S. with a disaster in the gulf that keeps on killing life "in that other gulf", while they feign caring what happens to the economies of several gulf states, and millions of gulf residents.
What is this BP (British politics) thing of gulfs, wars, killing, maiming, and polluting?
These are the elite of the world?
Why is BP forced upon us "to help our states in the gulf", from BP's own disaster, and why are they forced upon us by our own federal government?
I think we now know why BP is a prima donna don't we?
Iraq's fields alone aren't really going to help much, but at this point we're desperately reaching for any life preserver we can find. Fair to speculate that the Iraq invasion might have represented nothing less than the Bush/Cheney acknowledgement that peak oil would soon be on us and that we had no realistic alternative energy supplies, hence we'd better position ourselves strategically for the final fall. Think Cheney's secret meeting with oil execs soon after taking office might not have discussed these issues?
ReplyDeleteIn that light, needing a pretext for the invasion, 9-11 begins to make much more sense. CIA pulls a pre-developed top secret contingency plan off the shelf, and there you go - a prepackaged imperial war campaign ready to go. Then, with Cheney whispering in his ear, Shrub sets it all in motion, with delusions of historical presidential grandeur and FINALLY earning a worthy place in the family legacy next to and maybe even one upping dear old dad.
Jesus, the little fucker REALLY DOES believe all the shit he spouts about history eventually vindicating him! Even explains his stupid expression when he was "notified" of the attacks. He knew they were coming, but was such a shitty actor he didn't know how to play the scene. Wag the dog indeed!
If we use in the neighborhood of 20 million bbl a day, the Iraq oil fields could produce half of that when they are in full production.
ReplyDeleteIf oil wars commence the Iraqi fields will go down in a very destructive battle, as will Saudi fields, Iranian fields, and the fields of other nations in that area.
A 9-11 conspiracy would also explain Obama's behavior since taking office. I would imagine soon after taking office he was "brought into the fold" with all that implies - unimaginably bad things for him and his entire family and/or social network should he ever reveal the secret and/or refuse to play ball. I can imagine his eyes widening at the audacity of it all.
ReplyDeleteWhen projecting daily oil requirements, keep in mind that world consumption must grow every year to keep our current economic fantasy world alive, and in the case of China and the US alone, that's a lot of oil! Merely holding supply at current consumption levels will be quite a herculean task in itself, but only doing that will result in economic staganation and/or retrenchment, and with current debt loads would be catastrophic. That's the point we're currently at, and where competition for remaining supplies will begin to get intense. Even in the best case that means higher prices, periodic local shortages, and increased political friction. In the worst case, it means economic and/or shooting wars.
disaffected,
ReplyDeleteMy comment was not too clear. Sorry.
The info I have is that the U.S. uses about 20 million bbl daily. Iraq at max can produce 10 million bbl.
BP, therefore, since it looks like they are doing the Western World's portion of Iraq's oil, would only get 5 million bbl a day (China the other 5).
It looks like they divided Iraq up between "the East" (China et. al.) and "the West" (U.S. & Britain).
A deal to stave off war?
Expect war footing in the mideast for a long time?
Randy,
ReplyDeleteWith 2 of the big 4 oil fields in the world already in decline (Ghawar in Saudi Arabia and Cantarell in Mexico) I would expect untold amounts of behind the scenes political maneuvering over remaining supplies. The mideast supplies are especially tricky, as almost everyone agrees they've been overestimating reserves for years. Keep in mind also that the oil doesn't just begin to decline in volume; the quality begins to degrade and it gets harder to pump out of the ground, both of which increase costs.
Long story short, the popular notion that we've got 20-30 years (or more) before the need to get off oil will become urgent is woefully misguided. The warning lights are already on and flashing brightly, and the effects of supply and price disruptions are already locked in. The only questions remaining are: what will be the economic and political ramifications, who will be hit the hardest, and indeed, will we even respond to this at all? There is simply no alternative on the horizon AT ALL for the oil we burn in vehicles and airplanes, and that alone is a complete game changer for the current world state of affairs.