Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, U.S. Study Finds

[alcibiades_mystery]

Source: New York Times

Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.

Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.

The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country’s oil industry.

The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.

---snip---

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/world/middleeast/12oil.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[MADem]

1. NO!!!! I'm shocked....SHOCKED, I tell you!! ..... not. .... nt

[aquart]

2. Did we steal it or did they steal it?

Not that it matters to me, because I will never be included in that "we."

[alittlelark]

6. Neither.... western oil companies stole it.

But WE let them.

[aquart]

8. Goody. NOW can we go home?

[alittlelark]

9. No, our soldiers have to distract 'insurgents'

so the oil can be stolen w/ the least loss of mercenary and/or Oil co. employee life.

[maddezmom]

3. K&R

[emilyg]

5. ditto

[Up2Late]

4. NO! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!! I don't think anyone could have predicted this happening...

:sarcasm:...except everyone here at DU.:banghead: :argh:

[maddezmom]

7. Iraq said to be missing up to 15 million dollars of oil daily

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Between five million and 15 million dollars worth of oil a day is accounted for in Iraq and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, The New York Times reoported Saturday.

Citing a draft US government report it gained access to, the newspaper said the amounts relate to between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of IraqÂ’s declared oil production over the past four years.

The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, the paper said.

But the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the countryÂ’s oil industry, The Times said.

The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.


more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070512/ts_afp/usiraqoil_070512063051;_ylt=Al5CHmcrDoxXPf2sxTMyQCCQOrgF

[LiberalFighter]

15. Does Yahoo or is it AFP that outsources their news to some foreign country such as India

They used the wrong word at least once even though the WP is apparently where they copied the story. They misspelled words even though the WP is apparently their source.

[jannyk]

10. Chalabi was Oil Minister for a good chunk of that timeframe

- it's par for the course for that scumbag.

[Socal31]

11. Really Now....

If we are syphoning that oil, at least be honest about it and let me fill up my F-150 for less than the $3.54/gallon that I paid tonight.....crap!

[conspirator]

12. Oh REALLY! Don't tell. This is what terrorists fight against: the looting of a nation's

natural resources by an alien invader.

[Lasher]

13. Mystery of the Missing Meters: Accounting for Iraq's Oil Revenue

...smugglers are suspected to be diverting an estimated billions of dollars worth of crude onto tankers because the oil metering system that is supposed monitor how much crude flows into and out of ABOT and KAAOT - has not worked since the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Officials blame the four-year delay in repairing the relatively simple system on "security problems." Others point to the failed efforts of the two U.S. companies hired to repair the southern oil fields, fix the two terminals, and the meters: Halliburton of Houston, Texas, and Parsons of Pasadena, California.

<snip>

Oil smuggling is believed to be occurring in three different ways in Iraq:

1. Iraqi crude. At ABOT, officials at Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company (SOC) that extracts the crude, and at the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) that pipes the crude to the terminals, would have to know about smuggling, even if they were not benefiting from the scheme.

Buyers from Brazil to India, from Thailand to the United States, purchase crude from Iraq at ABOT. The tanker operators would also have to be part of smuggling schemes. They would sign receipts for a lower quantity than they actually receive, and pay the extra directly to the smugglers. The most likely collaborators are either Iraqi or U.S. officials who supervise the production and delivery. Or both.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14427

[Tesla]

14. Yeah smugglers, I believe that.......NOT!!!

Just a coincidence it hasn't been right since we invaded,it only costs a few lives to make millions a day!!

[struggle4progress]

24. The Banana REpublicans seem to have set up a smuggling operation before the war:

I can't quote more than 4 paragraphs, but the article says (for example) that Washington told oil traders it would turn a blind eye to trading with Amman, so the country could develop reserves in advance of the Iraq war. The amount of missing oil in these more recent reports seems to me only consistent with ongoing use of unmonitored tankers, which must require continuing US complicity.

US ignored warning on Iraqi oil smuggling
By Claudio Gatti in New York
Published: January 13 2005 01:31

~snip~ In January 2003, Millennium, a little-known Jordanian company, asked Odin Marine, a shipping broker based in Stamford, Connecticut, to find tankers to load millions of barrels of Iraqi oil. Odin declined to comment.

“The ship owners were very wary,” recalled another broker involved in the deal. “They received papers from Jordan with all kinds of government stamps claiming it was legitimate,but never actually received anything from the UN.”

In fact, no UN papers could have been provided since Millennium was not allowed to lift oil from Iraq, and the port of loading, Khor al-Amaya in southern Iraq, did not have UN authorisation to operate.

Nevertheless, shipping companies willing to take the cargo were found. “One of the vessels I fixed was the Argosea, which was owned by the Greek shipping company Tsakos,” the broker said. ~snip~

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d9d4d8b0-64f6-11d9-9f8b-00000e2511c8.html

[LiberalFighter]

17. Wouldn't they know the storage capacity of the transport vehicle?

[Lasher]

19. Sure they would

That's why the author of the article says the buyers and the officials who supervise production and delivery are in on it. If they record the actual amount of crude that is being pumped into each tanker it's hard to imagine how they could steal it, regardless of whether it's being metered or not.

[ShortnFiery]

16. Well, you can't pay those Corporate Mercenaries with peanuts, ya know?

Soldiers of Fortune pay starts with a BASE of $100,000. :wow:

[zanne]

18. How many times are they going to "discover" that?

Every once in awhile, the billions that are missing make the news. It always fades from the front page very quickly, until the next time somebody "discovers" that billions are missing.

[bearfan454]

20. bushco at work again nt

[lovuian]

21. Billions wonder where it all went???

Bush's pockets

[Tesla]

25. Michael Jackson knows where to go to avoid court proceedings

http://www.invest.bulgarian-estate.net/buy-in-dubai.htm

[ShortnFiery]

22. Kick for Justice

No more WAR for Multi-National Oil Profiteering ---> Military Industrial Complex. :grr:

Everybody (ruling elites) is making a sale?

:dem:

[pitohui]

23. jeez

bartcop has been saying this for years, nytimes finally catching up to the little websites?

[BigDDem]

26. I know!

Let's pay Halliburton lots and lots of money to investigate.