(Per) PALAST: IRAQ INVASION WAS TO ENSURE NATION DID NOT EXCEED OPEC QUOTA

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/23143

PALAST: IRAQ INVASION WAS TO ENSURE NATION DID NOT EXCEED OPEC QUOTA
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2007-05-31 15:33. Media

By Sherwood Ross

Iraq was invaded in order to limit its oil production and thus keep world oil prices artificially high, a noted investigative journalist reports.

"Iraq's output in 2003, 2004, and 2005 was less than produced under the restrictive oil-for-food program," writes Greg Palast in his new book Armed Madhouse (Plume). Oil-for-food allowed Iraq to sell 2 million barrels per day during the 1995 to 2003 period.

"Whether by design or happenstance, this decline in output has resulted in tripling the profits of the five US oil majors to $89 billion for a single year, 2005, compared to pre-invasion 2002," Palast writes.

snip//

Palast says OPEC is a front for the international oil companies. "If oil companies had created this cartel to fix prices, that would have made it a criminal conspiracy - cartels are illegal. But when governments conspire for the same purpose, the illegal conspiracy turns into a legitimate "alliance" of sovereign states. OPEC's government cover makes the price fixing perfectly legal, and Big Oil reaps the rewards."

Palast said Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations take Americans' money at the pump, and in their heating and electric bills, and use it to buy up US government notes. In 2005, $243 billion in petro-dollars was collected from Americans by OPEC. Foreigners then bought up $311 billion in US government debts, he said.

"All the goodies, from nuclear subs to tax cuts to war in Mesopotamia appear to be 'free' to the taxpayer," Palast writes. "It's all just put on the tab, the national debt, including the interest on it. The actual cash needed to pay for these budget busters is first collected from US consumers via the hidden oil tax for which Mr. Bush takes no blame."

[aquart]

1. Which is why a huge windfall profits tax is so necessary.

Vital to us and to the world really. Poorhouse the pricks.

[JoePhilly]

2. And why Bush says we'll need to keep troops there for 50 years ...

like in South Korea.

[mike_c]

3. this glimpse of the men behind the curtain must go directly to the greatest page....

K&R!

[The Wielding Truth]

4. Wo, truth is illuminating. It makes sense now.-a business deal.

[electron_blue]

5. Yes, this makes it crystal clear, doesn't it?

[seafan]

6. This is critical for everyone to read and understand.

From PALAST: IRAQ INVASION WAS TO ENSURE NATION DID NOT EXCEED OPEC QUOTA, May 31, 2007

.....

"When OPEC raises the price of crude, Big Oil makes out big time," says Palast, who has contributed to BBC Television and the Guardian newspapers.
He points out the oil majors are not simply passive resellers of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production but have reserves of their own which rise in tandem with oil prices.


"The rise in the price of oil after the first three years of the war boosted the value of the reserves of ExxonMobil Oil alone by just over $666 billion," Palast wrote. What's more, Chevron Oil, "where Condoleezza Rice had served as a director, gained a quarter trillion dollars in value."
Another big winner in the Iraq war is Saudi Arabia. The war-stoked jump in oil prices, Palast writes, put $120 billion in Saudi Arabia's treasury in 2004, triple its normal take.


Among the big losers have been American motorists, now paying about $3.30 for a gallon (3.8 liters) of gas. The oil price spike has also punished US industry, costing America an estimated 1.2 million jobs. "Higher borrowing costs for business since the beginning of the Iraq war are bleeding manufacturing investment," Palast adds.


Rising oil prices are an anomaly. The world's petroleum reserves have doubled from 648 billion to 1.2 trillion barrels in the past 25 years, Palast reports. According to free market laws of supply and demand, discovery of these immense new pools should cause prices to drop.
Big Oil's interest is in "suppressing production," Palast writes, stating "An international industry policy of suppressing Iraqi oil production has been in place since 1927."

.....

Iraq has 74 known oil fields but only 15 are in production and 526 known pools of oil of which only 125 have been drilled. Again, only 15,000 rigs in Iraq are pumping up black gold, compared, for example, to 1 million rigs in Texas.
In 2005, Iraq exported only 1.4 million barrels of oil daily, less than under Saddam, less than half its old OPEC quota, and less than a fourth of its ultimate capacity, Palast reports.


"Though technically owned by the Iraqis through their state oil company, we can expect the crude to be gathered and controlled downstream by the same old hands, British Petroleum, Chevron, and other IOC's that first drew that nation's borders, politely fulfilling Iraq's quota assigned by the Saudis, no more, maybe less," Palast writes.


In addition to clapping a lid on Iraqi production, Palast charges the US "promoted sabotage of oil piping, loading, and refining systems in Venezuela" to limit that country's production.
Palast reminds that Venezuela, once the top exporter to the US, broke the back of the 1973 Arab oil embargo by replacing the oil withdrawn by Saudi Arabia. " Chavez, despised by Bush, was not likely to save Bush's bacon by busting another embargo. Therefore, Chavez had to go immediately," Palast writes.

.....

Hmmmm.... sabotage of pipelines and refining systems in Venezuela. Could it be that the US also promoted sabotage of Iraqi pipelines, while very craftily and cynically blaming it on *insurgents*?

Maybe that's where that missing $8.8 Billion went... to pay people in bricks of cash to blow up oil infrastructure in Iraq, thereby ensuring the slowdown of oil flowing out of Iraq?

It really all fits together neatly, doesn't it?


And all the while, they are trying to distract us with immigration, abortion, gays, religion and tawdry stories of celebrities.



We are past the point of no return. We absolutely MUST REMOVE THESE PEOPLE AND ALL OF THEIR BLOODY, AVARICIOUS TENTACLES FROM OUR GOVERNMENT.

[FogerRox]

12. Big oil claims reserves are up

Rising oil prices are an anomaly. The world's petroleum reserves have doubled from 648 billion to 1.2 trillion barrels in the past 25 years,

While World production is down



Because counting the Canadian tar sands as increased reserves, is tuff not to crack, yes we can make gasoline out of the tar sands, yes we can drill 25,000 feet down, (thru 7,000 feet of ocean and then 18,000 ft of rock)... but its going to cost a dollar to get a $1.30 of gas....

All the easy oil (shallow light sweet crude) has been gotten. The rest of it is sour and heavy and deeper, much deeper.

[endarkenment]

7. I think this explanation is perhaps the best.

Note also that the preceding 12 years of embargo also kept Iraqi oil off the market, but that the embargo was slowly breaking down.

[Raster]

8. The Iraq War: brought to you by the Texas-American Petroleum Cartel,

and the Military Industrial Complex.

War is a good business, invest a child.

[tinrobot]

9. He's been saying this for a while...

I heard him speak in LA last year and he said the same thing.

It makes total sense. It's not about getting the oil, it's about turning it off to raise prices. That's also the reason that Hugo Chavez is an "enemy" to the Bushies, he's not playing by OPEC rules, either.

[Prophet 451]

10. Take it further

If you're a totally amoral president in bed with the oil lobby, would it not be in your interests to deliberately bungle the occupation, thereby keeping the nation in chaos and prices high?

[bonito]

11. Taking on OPEC, House Passes 'NOPEC' Bill

Maya Jackson Randall reports on energy legislation. 5/22

The White House threatened a veto, but that gave few lawmakers pause as the House today easily approved a bill that would let the Justice Department sue members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for using anticompetitive measures to... more

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/05/22/taking-on-opec-house-passes-nopec-bill/

[gravity]

13. I doubt this claim

There was a decline in Iraqi oil do to incompetence, but I highly doubt it was planned that way, especially given Bush's record of accomplishments for the rest of Iraq.

I could be wrong, but I need to see more evidence to convince me otherwise.

Is there evidence the Iraq was exceeding OPEC quotas before the war?

[babylonsister]

14. Google should help you out; give it a try. nt

[MikeDuffy]

16. I STRONGLY doubt this also.

Why has Greg never (so far as I know) responded to Richard Heinberg's "An Open Letter to Greg Palast" concerning Palast's other Peak Oil denial material in his "Armed Madhouse"?: http://www.energybulletin.net/17914.html
Somebody in Iraq with the power to do so is stealing untold millions of barrels of un-metered oil a day -- who could that be?

Here is a chart of global oil supply by quarter (the un-shown 1st qtr 07 declined a bit from 4th qtr 06, I believe). How would you describe what this chart depicts?

[MikeDuffy]

18. Chart link:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

17. I suppose "mistakes were made" disavows the OP?

[libodem]

15. That makes me sick.

No. Really sick, I'm ging to bed.

[MasonJar]

19. Saddam was also ready to go with the Euro. Hence the urgency

It really makes me ill to think that we overturned a legitimate government and then assisted in the execution of its leader. In addition we, the good old USA, have killed/murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Saddam should have been tried by the International Court. Bush and his minions have murdered more Iraqi citizens than Hussein. Are they going to be hung?