Iraq's oil production back above 2.5 million barrels a day: minister

[ECH1969]

Iraq's oil production is now over 2.5 million barrels a day, a record since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the country's oil minister said.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said on US television that Iraq hoped to be producing 4.3 million barrels by 2010 and to be challenging Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer by 2015.

Production was about 2.5 million dollars a day when President Saddam Hussein was deposed by US-led forces in 2003. It then collapsed to virtually nothing and has been slow to rebuild because of insurgent attacks and other problems.

In an interview with CNN television, Shahristani emphasized that only one month and three days after the Iraqi government took office "we have been able to break a record". "Today's oil production was in excess of 2.5 million barrel a day. And that's a record since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003," he told CNN's "Late Edition" programme.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060625/bs_afp/iraqoilenergy_060625200659

[Canuckistanian]

1. Hmmm...

Let me look into my crystal ball.... still a bit fuzzy... ah, clearing up now.... OK, here it is.
I see a major terrorist attack on oil wells and production facilities in the near future. Production will be "set back by years".

The Great Canuckini has spoken.

[Eurobabe]

2. Everybody's shooting each other, but that's just fucking great news!

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Iraq oil output hits a new high (BBC)

Oil production in Iraq has hit its highest level since former leader Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

Production has risen to 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from a steady 2 million bpd during the US-led invasion, Iraq's new oil minister said.
***
Before the war, output was around 3 million bpd, peaking at a record of 3.5 million bpd.

During an interview with CNN, Mr Shahristani said that Iraq's target now was to challenge Saudi Arabia's position as the world's leading oil producer.

To that end the oil minister said he expected output to rise to approximately 4m barrels per day by 2010, increasing to 6m bpd by 2012.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5117170.stm

Iiiiiinteresting ... our good chums, the Saudis, are now going to be surpassed by our supposedly compliant, hand-picked chums in Iraq ? Now who could benefit from that? (No credit for answering "freedom-lovers everywhere".)


/edited for sentence construction

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. Where are the profits going?

Why are we continuing to spend billions on Iraq if they are one of the top oil producers?

[ECH1969]

6. Iraq makes about 20-25 billion per month

Most of the money goes to providing services. The US doesn't actually give Iraq huge amounts of money like some might think given the price tag of the war. The real cost is just having our troops there and having the replace humvees and tanks every couple months.

[MindPilot]

8. To the oil companies of course.

Our purpose in Iraq is not to get them producing oil, it is to lock down those oil fields to keep the prices up.

[MindPilot]

5. Mr Shahristani will soon be replaced

with someone a little more OPEC-friendly. Although Iraq's quota has been 4m since the sometime in the 80s' and if they don't plan on reaching that for another four years the Saudis can probably still play along with the freedom-and-democracy-for-the-ME charade. As long as OPEC still controls the prices by making us believe we're almost out of oil Houston is happy.

[gratuitous]

7. I'm wondering how they know . . .

That second sentence, "Production has risen to 2.5 million barrels per day from a steady 2 million bpd during the US-led invasion." For a long time, the reports were that production was lagging or was halted completely due to sabotage in the oil fields. Where did this "steady 2 million bpd" figure come from?

And who's buying all that oil? Or, perhaps more properly, who's shipping all that oil, and are they paying for it? The American taxpayers were told that the invasion of Iraq would practically pay for itself once the oil revenues started coming through. Now, 2 million barrels per day at the new price of $70 per barrel yields a rather tidy daily sum of money . . . for somebody. So my febrile little mind, hypnotized by the hobgoblin of a foolish consistency, keeps coming back to those nagging questions: Who's shipping the oil? Who's paying for it? Where is that money going? And does this have anything to do with George W. Bush's confident assertions over and over again that we'll be in Iraq for the rest of his administration?

[Canuckistanian]

9. What about the royalties?

Are any being paid at all? Any production taxes? Are any native Iraqi oil companies involved at all?

In other words, are the people of Iraq seeing a dime from any of this?

[tabasco]

10. So it's like Cheney and Rummy said - -

the war is paying for itself. Right? Right?

[daleo]

12. It's turning a profit, if you are a Halliburton shareholder

And that's what Bush and Cheney really care about.

[daleo]

11. So (they claim) this is back up to the end of the Saddam regime

But in 1990 Iraq was producing 3.5 million barrels per day.

"Iraqi Oil Production
Shortly after its failed 1990 invasion of Kuwait and imposition of resulting trade embargos, Iraq's oil production fell from 3.5 million barrels per day to around 300,000 barrels per day. By February 2002, Iraqi oil production had recovered to about 2.5 million barrels per day. Iraqi officials had hoped to increase the country's oil production capacity to 3.5 million barrels per day by the end of 2000, but did not accomplish this given technical problems with Iraqi oil fields, pipelines, and other oil infrastructure. Iraq also claims that oil production capacity expansion has been constrained by refusal of the United Nations to provide Iraq with all the oil industry equipment it has requested."

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aairaqioil.htm

[humbled_opinion]

13. The war that costs us Billions ...

I'm sorry but how is right that we get stuck with this bill.... Brush is giving the bill for this war to our grand kids?

[Javaman]

14. That is of course, until various parts of it are blown up again. nt