questions about the stock piling of oil before the invasion of Iraq

[donsu]

What Did Oil Companies Know?

http://www.populist.com/04.4.burns.html

In the weeks leading up to the invasion of Iraq, US oil companies quietly doubled their imports of Iraqi oil. According to government figures, US imports of Iraqi crude almost tripled from November 2002 (9.57 million barrels) to February 2003 (25.78 million barrels).

Indeed, even in March 2003, while US troops were invading Iraq, US petroleum companies imported 22.9 million barrels of Iraqi oil. (For yearly and monthly US imports, see www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/press.html#prior/.)

After I wrote about Iraqi oil imports earlier, a thoughtful reader pointed out to me that since we were at war in Iraq by the last half of March, that entire month's usual amount of imports, nearly doubled, had to have been shipped from Iraq earlier. Considering the logistics involved, for the February amount to have doubled, Iraqi suppliers and distributors had to be notified of the greater demand ahead of time. She wonders, "How much ahead of time?"

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The reader noted, "Just lining up the extra tankers that would be required for doubling their imports must have been a time-consuming job for the oil companies, particularly if they had to hire some of those tankers and consider what jobs were already scheduled for them." She speculated that the companies had to pay a premium in order to have them at an Iraqi port on the date they would be required, and further that perhaps the administration "tipped off the oil companies" to increase their import stockpiles. How, after all, did the oil companies know they had to beef up their imports?

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That same period must have confirmed, for some Iraqis, the Westerners' priorities: With the country of Iraq itself sorely in need of every imaginable supply, its most valuable resource was being consumed voraciously by some of the very people (occupiers) pleading their inability to restore even household electricity in Baghdad. With the pipelines hit by repeated sabotage and other resistance acts, US imports of Iraqi oil dropped to only three million barrels in May, and collapsed to 24,000 barrels in June. It was on July 3, following this drop, that Bush produced his macho challenge, "Bring 'em on!"
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the last paragrah of this article talks about this oil and 9/11. very interesting!