Official Says Iraqi Oil Production Still Lagging

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/business/worldbusiness/22petrol.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1127361931-9Zufme7p2V+a5zan/pKYrg&pagewanted=print

Official Says Iraqi Oil Production Still Lagging

LONDON, Sept. 21 - Big oil companies have no concrete plans to develop Iraq's oil industry, Issam al-Chalabi, a former Iraqi oil minister, said Wednesday. It will be several years before the country can hope to return to its 1979 production peak and probably a decade before it can pump the amount suggested by its reserves, he said.

The White House and other supporters of the 2003 invasion of Iraq pointed to the prospect of increasing the country's oil production to improve the lives of its people. After the invasion, however, equipment was looted from pipelines, pumping stations and other facilities, and continuing security problems have kept foreign oil companies away. In addition, there has been a lack of institutions and laws to manage the oil industry.

Mr. Chalabi, who was oil minister in Iraq in the late 1980's, before the Persian Gulf war of 1991, told a conference here: "There is no plan to develop the Iraqi oil industry."

Looking at current production, he said that Iraq would be "lucky" to maintain its level of some 1.5 million barrels a day. He also said that he doubted Iraq could return to its 1979 record production levels of 3.5 million barrels a day until 2009.

[FloridaPat]

1. And these were the first things secured by our army! No "concrete plans.

That means they aren't written in stone yet, just being pushed around on paper.

[DemInDistress]

2. where is the money from oil sales

since the Bush Crime Family took control of Iraq on March 19 2003?
If the Iraqi"s pumped 1.5 million bbls a day for 2 yrs thats roughly
1.2 billion bbls..where is the 40/60 billion dollars in sales? More
than half of Iraq remains unexplored.Back in 2001 Cheney held his
Energy Task force which included dividing Iraq into 14 parcels to
explore for more oilfields.That report was refused by Dickhead and
the Supreme Scalia saw that Dickhead could keep secret those reports.
I hate them all ...................