This never occurred to me - plain old demand supply economics

[Maraya1969]

for oil. With Iraq oil gone the price has risen. Maybe that is what the strategy has been all along.

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On the other hand, you had an antiwar movement, one part of which was focused almost solely on the issue of Iraqi oil. The iconic oil sign of the prewar protest period (sure to be found again at the big demonstration in Washington this Saturday) was: "No blood for oil." But, with two years-plus of Iraqi experience under our belts, it should now be clear that this slogan was misconceived in at least one crucial way. It should have read: "Blood for no oil."

This is perhaps the strangest, most instructive and least written about aspect of the Iraqi invasion, occupation and present chaos. We can be assured that, in the next few years, we're going to be hearing far more about "resource wars", tight energy supplies and the need to nail down raw materials militarily.

<snip>


It's all very well to occupy a country, set up your "enduring camps" and imagine yourself controlling the key energy spigots of the globe, but doing so is another matter. (As the saying went in a previous military age, you can't mine coal with bayonets.)

In the case of Iraq, one could simply say that the military conquest and occupation of the country essentially drove Iraq's oil deeper underground and beyond anyone's grasp. Hence, the signs should indeed say: "Blood for no oil." It's the perfect sorry slogan for a sad, brainless war; and even the Pentagon's resource-war planners might consider it a lesson worthy of further study as they think about our energy future.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GI22Ak03.html

[Maraya1969]

1. Adding this.

"and yet, until the Iraqi resistance began blowing up pipelines, reports on Iraqi oil were as few and far between as oases in a desert."

Destroy the competitor's supply will increase your ability to raise prices - and profits.

[Old and In the Way]

2. I think the plan was to keep it off the market.

They are controlling supply while demand increases = higher prices.

I know what we've spent, but how much total windfall profits have the oil companies realized since we invaded?

[dogonarug]

3. Are you saying...

That the massive, decade long SUV PR campaign had an ulterior motive?
But who would fall for it? :sarcasm:

[baldguy]

4. $60/ per barrel oil is no accident.

And the market has nothing to do with it.