Reply #23: Needless excitement

[Mike C]

Privatization of Iraq's oil industry is pretty much the only way to rebuild/expand it. Countries that have privatized their oil industries, in whole or in part, include Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Russia, Khazahstan, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, every sub-Saharan African producing country, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, Norway, Germany, Poland, France Romania, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. And I know I've left some out. The US and Canada never had a nationalized oil industry to start with. Mexico is currently struggling with how to entice foreign oil companies into the country without having a knock-down, drag out battle over the constitutional provision against foreign comapny ownership of even minority oil interests. The reason they're doing that is because, like ALL national oil companies, there's is underfunded, overstaffed, inefficient and at least in part a mere social subsidy or, as I like to put it, a very large adult daycare center. Hell, that brand new discovery in Cuba was made by a foreign company, not by the Cuban government.