Big reason for hope in Iraq: Oil, and lots of it

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/26/107493/big-reason-for-hope-in-iraq-oil.html">Big reason for hope in Iraq: Oil, and lots of it
By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011

BASRA, Iraq — On a bleak stretch of desert near the Iraq-Kuwait border — half a world away from the Gulf of Mexico and last year's nightmarish blowout — BP is riding high, rapidly developing one of the world's richest oil fields.

The British energy giant plans to drill 3,000 new wells here over the next 10 years and build a town from scratch to house 4,000 employees. BP and Iraqi officials hope the Rumaila field soon will become the second most productive in the world — after Saudi Arabia's Ghawar — propelling the country into competition with Saudi Arabia and its other powerful oil-producing neighbor, Iran.

Iraq sits on the world's third largest oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, with the biggest known fields lying under the windswept sands outside Basra. Despite aging pipelines, spotty electricity, chronic insecurity and a maze of inefficient bureaucracy, the oil sector is pressing an ambitious expansion plan that will determine Iraq's economic future long after the last American soldiers withdraw at the end of the year.

Earlier this month, thanks largely to the gains at Rumaila, Iraqi officials said that daily oil production had climbed to 2.7 million barrels, the highest level since the U.S.-led invasion nearly eight years ago. Though that's barely a quarter of what Saudi Arabia produces, Iraq claims that within seven years it could surpass its rival by increasing production to more than 13 million barrels per day.

That would be a colossal achievement, and few expect it to happen. But after three decades of dictatorial neglect, economic sanctions and conflict that decimated Iraq's oil sector, the increases so far are "extraordinarily encouraging," said Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad.

[DCBob]

1. Can we get a refund on our "investment" there?

[Fumesucker]

2. Look what vast oil fields have done for Saudi Arabia..

Oh, wait..

[SoCalDem]

3. and when they are done developing it, Moqtada al Sadr

will take power, throw them out, and align firmly with Iran..

5,000+ US soldiers died, a country was polluted/bombed , millions hurt/killed, so that Iran could flourish with it's new "province" and all that oil..

Will we be willing to stop them?

Within 5 years new "new Saddam" will be in control, and what did we gain?