Monday, June 4, 2012

Iraq: World's Number One Oil Producer? - 8

"blundering accidentally into their oil wells"
A couple of years ago we started this series with the post Iraq: World's Number One Oil Producer?

Of course it was received with skepticism, because of, among other things, a subtle implied nexus between the Iraq war and the Iraq oil.

Perhaps there was also skepticism because of another, but not so subtle, Dredd Blog series The Peak of the Oil Wars, but Dredd Blog is not the first, nor is any blog today the first, to notice the historical reality of this having been going on for generations:
Notice the following quote from a book, published in 1944, commenting on U.S. exceptional propaganda of that time, aptly describing the McTell News generated perception and concept of a "national enemy":
The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells.
(As We Go Marching, by John T. Flynn, 1944, page 222). Some experts expect Iraq to "accidentally" become the largest supplier of oil now, since we blundered "accidentally into their oil wells".
(Myth Addiction Is Establishment's LSD - 3). Those who don't see this obvious, no-brainer reality won't see it because either they are not looking, or they have their eyes closed on purpose.

The "chickens may now be coming home to roost" as the old saying goes:
Despite sectarian bombings and political gridlock, Iraq’s crude oil production is soaring, providing a singular bright spot for the nation’s future and relief for global oil markets as the West tightens sanctions on Iranian exports.

The increased flow and vital port improvements have produced a 20 percent jump in exports this year to nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, making Iraq one of the premier producers in OPEC for the first time in decades.
(NY Times). The thing that is most important to note in this sequence of events, is that the oil companies who orchestrate the oil wars have no allegiance to any one nation (see MOMCOM: The Private Parts).

The previous post in this series is here.

2 comments:

  1. "Negotions are under way for Exxon Mobile, Shell, Total and BP -- the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and Other smaller oil companies -- to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalization during the years when the oil producers [Iraqis] took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than forty other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia.

    'There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth thesse contracts seek to extract," Andrew E. Kramer wrote in the New York Times.'
    "

    (Making The Future, by Noam Chomsky, p.87)

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  2. Iraq produced a record 4M barrels per day of crude oil in December 2014 (link).

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