At least until all the oil is gone. The world consumes 86 million barrels of oil a day. The estimated 300 to 400 billion barrels of oil in Iraq moves the date of Peak Oil out 5 years all by itself. Why does Iraq have so much untapped oil? Because the strategy of the oil companies has always been to keep Iraq oil off the market so that the Saudis could be the swing producer and thus keep oil prices artificially high. But now the Saudi Oil is running out at the same time would consumption is expected to increase 37% to 118 million barrels a day.
Look, read the history of US/British oil-motivated intervention in Iraq. The US and Britain have always intervened militarily to maintain their position in Iraq. The current Iraq War has only been the latest in a string of wars to enforce the Oil Giant’s imperial goals:
Oil Companies in Iraq: A Century of Rivalry and WarThe United States and the United Kingdom did not wage war on Iraq for the officially stated reasons. That much is obvious. The world’s superpower and its key ally were not acting because they feared the Iraqi government’s weapons of mass destruction or its ties with the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Nor were they fighting to bring democracy to the Middle East, a region where the two governments had long supported reactionary monarchs and odious dictators, including Iraqi president Saddam Hussein himself.
It is time, then, to set aside the sterile discussions about “intelligence failures” and to consider a deeper reason for the conflict. This paper will argue that the war was primarily a “war for oil” in which large, multinational oil companies and their host governments acted in secret concert to gain control of Iraq's fabulous oil reserves and to gain leverage over other national oil producers. In arguing for the primacy of oil, we do not imply that other factors were not at play. The imperial dreams of the neo-con advisors in Washington contributed to the final outcome, as did the re-election strategies of the political operatives in the White House. But the Iraq war did not emerge solely from the Bush administration. As we shall see, it involved both London and Washington, through the course of many governments. And it emerged from a decades-long effort by the world's largest companies to appropriate the planet's most lucrative natural resource deposits.
….
Officially, Iraq’s reserves are stated as 112 billion barrels, the world’s second largest after Saudi Arabia.
According to the US Department of Energy, Iraq’s real reserves may be far greater – as much as 3-400 billion barrels after further prospecting. Iraq’s Senior Deputy Oil Minister confirmed high estimates on May 22, 2002, in an interview with Platts, a leading industry information source. He said: “we will exceed 300 billion barrels when all Iraq’s regions are explored,” and he went on to affirm that “Iraq will
be the number one holder of oil reserves in the world.”
Iraq’s oil is the world’s cheapest to produce, at a cost of only about $1 per barrel. The gigantic “rent” on Iraq’s oil, during decades of production, could yield company profits in the range of $4-5 trillion dollars – that is, $4-5 million, millions. Assuming fifty years of production and 40% royalties, Iraq could yield annual profits of $80-90 billion per year – more than the total annual profits of the top five companies, even in the banner year of 2003.
…
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2003/2003companiesiniraq.htm
DemocracyNow has an interview with Jim Paul:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/03/142249Here’s the deal: Until there’s a Manhattan Project sized push to replace oil, until there’s a Jimmy Carter type push to conserve energy, all this talk about leaving Iraq is just that, talk; a little something between the mega-false-flag-terror-attacks to let you think that you have a voice in the governing of this country. You don’t. Large business interests have always ruled America and now, by attrition, Big Oil is the 800 pound Gorilla in room.
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