skippy the bush kangaroo: oil, oil, toil and trouble

Monday, May 07, 2007

oil, oil, toil and trouble

let’s play then and now

then:

deputy defense secretary paul wolfowitz: “there’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be u.s. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…we’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” [source: house committee on appropriations hearing on a supplemental war regulation, 3/27/03]

now:

iraq's oil production falls short of goals

despite years of rebuilding, petroleum production continues to fall short of targets, due to insurgency vandalism, poor field management, and corruption.
by peter grier | staff writer of the christian science monitor

four years after the fall of saddam hussein, the story of iraqi petroleum remains one of great promises unfulfilled. iraqi oil did not pay for the first round of postwar national reconstruction, as bush administration officials had predicted. nor has the industry come close to matching its decades-old pumping record of 3.7 billion barrels a day – a level at which iraq might become a vital source of oil for thirsty world markets.

"i think they are years away from being a reliable 4-million-barrel-a-day producer," says frank verrastro, director and senior fellow in the energy program of the center for strategic and international studies (csis).

and let’s check in with the cost o’ war meter, skippy