Analysis: Iraq oil in '07, bleak as '06

[Barrett808]

Analysis: Iraq oil in '07, bleak as '06
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Correspondent

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Iraq has a lot of oil, more than any other country in the world except two.

...

Various factions are fighting over control of the country, as well as its oil, and there's a struggle between the central and regional governments over which side will oversee future development of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of crude reserves.

The security situation in the country is bad and getting worse, keeping investors from putting any people or resources on the ground that may not survive.

...

"We're where we were two years ago as far as production goes," said Erik Kreil, an analyst with the Energy Information Administration, the data arm of the U.S. Energy Department.

"Oil production really went up negligibly" in 2006, he said. "A whole year has gone by and production went up approximately on average 100,000 barrels a day."

(more)

http://www.upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20061222-033854-6157r