And just think that if Saddam had still been in power, he'd be building nukes and chemical weapons instead of exploring for more oil.
On another note, this raises Iraq to the status of world's second richest third world country... after Saudi Arabia. ;-P
This would mean Anbar province. If this is true, it would be ground-breaking news. This is HUGE. It would destroy the major reason for the sectarian violence and political tension in Iraq! The Sunnis were/are afraid to sit on sand while the Kurds and Shias sit on oil. This potential new reality would change the whole situation. This gives us even more reason to fight on in Iraq and NEVER to surrender to the terrorists. Iraq has an helluva potential.
This is good news especially if the oil is in the Western desert since that’s primarily Sunni controlled and one of their biggest fears was that they would be cut out of any oil revenue from the Shi’ite and Kurdish regions.
PING
Lot’s of oil in Anbar.
After the Democrats get their way, all of that oil will belong to Iran and Syria.
Can’t be true. There was a peak oil story yesterday.
A Crude Look at Iraq’s Wealth
Henry Thompson
Iraq is a wealthy country and every Iraqi is a present value millionaire. Wealth in the world is shifting toward owners of crude oil making Iraqis wealthy.
Over the next two decades, total world energy consumption will almost double. Serious alternatives to oil energy are decades away requiring a doubling in the underlying price of crude oil. In the US, oil consumption is expanding, oil production is declining, and imports are climbing. Oil prices and the energy share of GDP will certainly increase over the next 50 years.
The energy bill will have to be paid with profits going to the owners of energy resources, not the oil companies. Owners of the oil reserves will profit as the price of oil rises due to increasing scarcity. Oil extraction and refining are very competitive with profits slightly higher than the average industry but with higher than average risk.
The price of a barrel of crude oil now ranges up to $70 with extraction cost in the Middle East $2. The owners of the oil get the difference. Extraction costs are rising but much slower than the price of oil.
The Arab Gulf has 65% of the world’s proven oil reserves. Iraq has 360 billion barrels of potential reserves, and 12% of the world proven reserves. Oil in the ground is like money in the bank making Iraqis wealthy.
Iraq can easily produce 6 million barrels of oil a day or 2 billion barrels per year out of its working oil fields. At $50 per barrel, that oil would sell for $100 billion. The population of Iraq is 24 million and that oil income translates to $4000 per capita per year.
For some crude conservative idea of the wealth if Iraq, suppose Iraq sells 1/4 of its potential reserves at an average price of $50 per barrel over the next 20 years. That would generate 90 billion x $50 = $4.5 trillion. If the population of Iraq grows to 30 million, that would be $150,000 per capita for 20 years, or $7,500 annual per capita income.
Estimated productive assets in the US according to the World Bank are $60,000 per capita, and in the world $5,000 per capita. If Iraq invests only 1/4 of its oil revenue for the next 20 years, it would match current US productive assets per capita.
The total value of Iraq potential oil reserves at an average profit of $75 per barrel over next 100 years would be 360 billion x $75 = $27 trillion or $900,000 per capita, making every Iraqi a millionaire. These calculations do not include natural gas revenue, lately about equal to oil revenue for producing fields.
In the entire Arab or Persian Gulf, proven oil reserves are 195 trillion barrels. Selling this at an average profit of $75 per barrel over the next 100 years would generate $15,000 trillion income. If half of that is invested, it would amount to $7,500 trillion or ¼ of the present total productive assets in world.
Iraq is a wealthy country.
It’s going to be Bush’s fault for not annexing all that oil and pumping it out into our salt-domes before our awesome military found Saddam in a spider hole!
BUSH’S FAULT!
WE should begin immediately to seriously achieve energy independence.
It makes sense to use the finite mineral resources of other countries first. On the other hand we cannot allow ourselves to be continually jerked around like a puppet on a string.
If the U.S. were to achieve even partial energy independence the Middle East would be of interest only to National Geographic.
Now Babylon, part of the second richest oil country in the world, will also be rebuilt and will be a strong center of commerce and wealth; it will probably be rebuilt in my time.
Interesting indeed.
“Iraq may hold twice as much oil”
Yippee! What does this all mean to the US, that’s the question I like to have the answer for. Will it benefit our economy or just Iraq’s? After all, it is precious American blood that is daily spilled to make sure that it (the oil) keeps on flowing.
Hmmmm....looks like the Sunnis may have some oil of their own. I'll bet the Syrians whould very much like a dismemberment and a Syrio-Anbar.
Well, that does it. The Dems will demand an IMMEDIATE withdrawal now.
Did you see this?
Sounds wonderful, if true. Now the place needs to be depopulated of the muzzie influence there, if we don’t have the guts to do it (putting our soldiers on trial for doing their jobs shows we don’t), then stand out of their way, and let them eliminate each other. The oil will still be in the ground.