Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Iraq Forced to Import Oil	Coup_de_Grace	08/18/06
AP "Iraqi officials announced plans to double the amount of money spent to import fuel to combat the country's worst oil and gasoline shortages in years. Much of the fuel crisis is due to insurgent attacks on convoys and on Iraq's fragile pipeline network, Oil Ministry officials said." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I remember that Bush sold his plan for occupation by saying that rebuilding of Iraq and the new democratic government would be paid for by money from the export of Iraqi oil. No one can deny that the War on Iraq has been a total disaster judging by RESULTS. Shiite Iran is totally empowered after a Hezbollah victory against Israel. Comments?
Answered By		Answered On
tomder55		08/20/06
actually it was my understanding that Iraq is swapping crude oil for refined petroleum. With the price of oil today the money should be flowing into Iraq . However ;the combinations of 2 decades of neglect of the oil infrastructure ;the insurgencies sabotage and attacks on it which discourage investment in the industry ,and most importantly the huge increase in demand by the Iraqi consumer has left production goals behind demand. As of Aug. 14 Iraq's crude oil production is back at 2.5 million barrels/day after the pipeline that takes oil to Turkey was repaired. Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said plans are under way to raise Iraq's oil production to between 2.9 million and 3 million barrels /day (b/d) by the end of the current year, and raise it by 500,000 b/d annually by 2010 ;all through the domestic oil industry ..any foreign investments will increase the output. I am hearing reports that Iran is actually angry at Hezbollah and Nasrallah . They depleted the missile supply that it took Iran years to build up with little to show for it ;and it is not likely that the stock can be resupplied .Also they are not pleased that Nasrallah emerged from the war as a rock hero in the Muslim world. Iran did not even get mentioned in the Cease-fire language as if their contribution to the conflict was irrelevent. They are also angry at the timing of the attack on Israel. They wanted the attack on Israel with missiles delayed until it better suited their time line (October or November ). Iran is in no way 'empowered' however you have your finger on their desires. I am concerned about the coming weeks . They have something planned and I think it has something to do with the announcement of a possible N Korean nuclear test .

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