US study finds billions of Iraqi oil missing

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/May/focusoniraq_May72.xml§ion=focusoniraq

12 May 2007

NEW YORK - Billions of dollars’ worth of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for, possibly having been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, The New York Times said on Saturday.

Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels of Iraq’s daily output of roughly 2 million barrels is missing, it said, citing a draft report prepared by the US Government Accountability Office and government energy analysts which is expected to be released next week.

The discrepancy was valued between $5 million and $15 million daily, using a $50 per barrel average, the report said. That adds up to billions of dollars over the four years since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The newspaper was provided the draft report by a separate government office that received a review copy. The GAO declined to discuss the draft, the paper said.

[Richard Steele]

1. All that oil has gone to some "undisclosed location", if ya know what I mean. nm

[ShortnFiery]

5. "undisclosed location" = To Ensure Pay for Soldiers of Fortune - MERCENARIES.

:grr:

[peacetalksforall]

11. It shouldn't have to be difficult to trace if it is PNAC. Might be more

difficult to trace if it's a neighboring country like Kuwait, Turkey, SA - especially if the country is connected to PNAC and the satellites and intelligence methods are controlled by one half or more of the partnering countries. If PNAC's not involved, I'm sure the DIA and Israel can figure it out. (with all due sarcasm)

It is probably not going to benefit any of the little people in the world except those who might get in on the deal like Blackwater or equivalent employees.

The war must go on because enough has not yet been stolen to meet 2007 targets. (with all due sarcasm)

Is the plan starting to be revealed - which corporation is going to register in Dubai next (or another UAE type country) - Chevron? They've got to go with a refinery country or establish a new one or two or more. Maybe Greenland? Virgin ports opening up there. Ready to be polluted.

Since it's all secret, we get to speculate. Right? One S deserves another.

[Lasher]

2. Similar thread in LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2843114

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Who's pumping Ethyl?

It had to be asked!

[Lasher]

18. I remember in 2003 when there was an uproar about pumping unmetered oil.

Nothing came of it, of course. The only thing new being reported here seems to be the amount they're guessing has been stolen.

Well, as through this world I've rambled
I've seen lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen.

Pretty Boy Floyd, by Woodie Guthrie, 1958

[Hubert Flottz]

21. I think it was undoubtedly the profits,

rather than the prophets, that steered BushCo's hellish course toward the invasion of Iraq.

[elehhhhna]

34. They are STILL unmetered -- I saw an article somewhere on it last week.

[Lasher]

35. I recently posted an article that is probably similar to the one you saw.

Here is a link to it.

But I have been reading up on another theory that is more likely, IMO. This one sets forth the notion that Iraqi oil is being secretly diverted to Saudi Arabia via an Iraq/Saudi oil pipeline that had not been used since the start of Gulf War I. Here is a link to that one.

But I need to say that these two theories are not mutually exclusive. Quite the contrary, there are good reasons to suspect that there are other scenarios going on in addition to these two.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. And the EXXON tiger wins again.

Meanwhile back at the pumps...

[C_U_L8R]

6. Bush is right

he I$ winning.

(and he never did define what winning is)

[dipsydoodle]

7. Ties in with Gliderguider's Theory

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=503509&mesg_id=503509

I'd kept that link because I was suitably impressed.

[ShortnFiery]

19. OMG, I had not considered that ... graft and corruption, but not THAT!

:wow:

[KoKo]

20. That theory makes alot of sense...Stay in Iraq ....use the oil to cover for the Saudi

drop off in production. Install a "friendly Govt." and make them our allies like we did the Saudi's all for oil. I guess we couldn't buy it from Saddam because we didn't trust him...so we invaded their country figuring it would be "a piece of cake" and Great Britain and the US would share the spoils.

It just didn't work out the way they planned. :-(

Yep...makes alot of sense as to why we can't get the hell out of that country no matter how low Bushies polls go and why our Congress just dithers and dithers. They don't want to tell the truth but they ALL KNOW! Disgusting.

[Lasher]

36. Very good work there by Gliderguider. I just read the whole thing and saved it.

Upthread and elsewhere I've been sharing the theory of unmetered oil at the terminals, but this one seems more likely. My guess is that both of these schemes, as well as others, are being employed.

[Double T]

8. It would take a substantial infrastructure to 'siphon off' this huge quantity of oil........

who could possibly have the means to pull this off. dick's super secret energy policy is at work AGAIN!

[Richard Steele]

13. They already had the infrastructure waiting to go before we ever invaded.

Thankfully, "edwardlindy" linked to this thread just above-
this is the one I was thinking of that explains it all nicely:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=503509&mesg_id=503509

[MrSlayer]

9. Yeah right, like this administration would ever steal anything.

Al Qaeda is stealing it to fund more major actions and acquire nukes.

[Double T]

10. How did you get Sunday Morning's Headlines a day early?

[MrSlayer]

15. I'm psychotic.

Like Nastrodamus.

[Richard Steele]

12. Self-deleted dupe. nm

[spanone]

14. It;s Always Been About The Fucking OIL.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. Partially the fucking oil. This war feeds the enormous appetite of the Military Industrial Complex.

:puke:

[merh]

22. It's both, if the US & GB force the Iraqis to pass the legislation

which allows for the profits on top of the production costs to be awarded to GB & US oil corporations, the "mission accomplished" banner will be a truth - that is all Blair and Bush care about.

If the legislation passes, the US & GB will have a presence in the area for decades (30 years) and the military will be necessary to protect the national interests (the Oil corps) thus the military industrial complex will be kept happy. Military bases and the huge embassy will be necessary and we will continue to occupy iraq.

This article is a good read on what is actually going on in Iraq relative to the "wanted" legislation and the attempts by the Iraqis to end the occupation.

~snip~

What is clear is that while the U.S. Congress dickers over timelines and benchmarks, Baghdad faces a major political showdown of its own. The major schism in Iraqi politics is not between Sunni and Shia or supporters of the Iraqi government and "anti-government forces," nor is it a clash of "moderates" against "radicals"; the defining battle for Iraq at the political level today is between nationalists trying to hold the Iraqi state together and separatists backed, so far, by the United States and Britain.

The continuing occupation of Iraq and the allocation of Iraq's resources -- especially its massive oil and natural gas deposits -- are the defining issues that now separate an increasingly restless bloc of nationalists in the Iraqi parliament from the administration of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government is dominated by Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish separatists.

By "separatists," we mean groups who oppose a unified Iraq with a strong central government; key figures like Maliki of the Dawa party, Shia leader Abdul Aziz Al-Hakeem of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq ("SCIRI"), Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi of the Sunni Islamic Party, President Jalal Talabani -- a Kurd -- and Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, favor partitioning Iraq into three autonomous regions with strong local governments and a weak central administration in Baghdad. (The partition plan is also favored by several congressional Democrats, notably Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.)

Iraq's separatists also oppose setting a timetable for ending the U.S. occupation, preferring the addition of more American troops to secure their regime. They favor privatizing Iraq's oil and gas and decentralizing petroleum operations and revenue distribution.

~snip~

A sovereign and unified Iraq, free of sectarian violence, is what George Bush and Tony Blair claim they want most. The most likely reason that the United States and Britain have rebuffed those Iraqi nationalists who share those goals is that the nationalists oppose permanent basing rights and the privatization of Iraq's oil sector. The administration, along with their allies in Big Oil, has pressed the Iraqi government to adopt an oil law that would give foreign multinationals a much higher rate of return than they enjoy in other major oil producing countries and would lock in their control over what George Bush called Iraq's "patrimony" for decades.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624/

What is that saying about history repeating itself? Iraq has had to deal with this type of terror for oil before. This is not new. http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/history/1976britiraq.htm

[stillcool]

23. here's a couple articles...

from last month...course..if I had a nickel for every article I've read the last 4 years about this law being passed...

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070418/ap/d8oiv4eo0.html
Iraqi oil law nears final stage
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer Wed Apr 18, 6:24 AM ET

Iraq's hotly debated draft oil law is to be sent to parliament "within the coming few days if everything goes well," the Oil Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The draft is with the State Shura Council now to be put in a legal form after being written in technical language," Assem Jihad told The Associated Press in a phone interview. He gave no date for the bill's introduction.

"We are expecting to take no more than two months to discuss it inside the parliament ... between one and two months it depends on the parliament," Jihad added.

The Iraqi oil legislation, which was endorsed by the cabinet last February, will open the door for the government to sign contracts for exploration and production of the country's vast untapped reserves.

It was designed to create a fair distribution of oil profits to all Iraqis and it is perhaps the most important piece of legislation for Iraq's American patrons.

Passage of the law, thought to have been written with heavy U.S. involvement, is one of four benchmarks the Bush administration has set for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's struggling government.

http://rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=43956
Top Iraqi Officials Arrive in Dubai to Discuss Draft Oil Law
by Oliver Klaus Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday, April 17, 2007
DUBAI, Apr 17, 2007 (Dow Jones News)

Iraqi officials and businessmen arrived in the United Arab Emirates Tuesday ahead of a meeting in Dubai on April 18 to discuss their country's controversial but crucial draft hydrocarbon law, intended to attract investments into the country's ailing energy sector.

The 85-strong Iraqi delegation is led by Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih and also comprises Planning Minister Ali Baban, Oil Minister Hussein Al Sharistani, former oil minister Thamir Ghadban and several other parliamentarians as well as Iraqi oil specialists and businessmen.
...........................................................................................
Several former Iraqi oil ministers and officials and veteran Iraqi oil experts, who have already fled the country's chaos but continue to hold some influence in Baghdad's politics and industry, urged the parliament to reject the draft law during a seminar they held in Amman last month. They feared that the new legislation would further divide the country already witnessing civil strife.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The legislation in its current form fails to clarify issues critical for investment in the country, namely the terms for foreign oil companies' participation, and whether they would be allowed to take majority stakes in some Iraqi oil fields.
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[merh]

24. thank you

I hadn't read those articles.

I love the "benchmark" comment in the first article. It isn't one of many, it is the only benchmark they truly care about.

Did you see the article form last week where the Iraqi Oil Workers Union are threatening to strike "The unions oppose language that they deem offers too much of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven reserves to foreign companies."

http://www.upi.com/Energy/Briefing/2007/05/09/iraq_workers_stall_strike_for_oil_ministry/

[stillcool]

26. I find it amazing..

that they've held out for this long....for some reason the U.S. can't seem to find the right dictator? I hadn't read the latest regarding the the Iraqi Union workers, but I have seen other articles that mention them. They seem to have some serious power behind them. This little snippet caught my eye from the article above...

Several former Iraqi oil ministers and officials and veteran Iraqi oil experts, who have already fled the country's chaos but continue to hold some influence in Baghdad's politics and industry, urged the parliament to reject the draft law during a seminar they held in Amman last month. They feared that the new legislation would further divide the country already witnessing civil strife.

[merh]

27. They do seem like a very powerful union

I'm ignorant as to the number of barrels in the market each day. Is the amount of loss barrels if a strike happened "1.6 million barrels per day from the market." a significant number world wide?

It's about the oil. Always has been and always will be.

[stillcool]

29. this helps explain things...

Perhaps most formidable of all is the Federation of Oil Unions, with 26,000 members and allies throughout organized labor. The oil workers overturned contracts in 2003 and 2004 that would have placed substantial oil facilities under multinational corporate control; and they initiated a vigorous campaign against the U.S. sponsored oil program as early as June 2005 -- calling a conference to oppose privatization attended by "workers, academics, and international civil-society groups." In January 2006, they convened a convention composed of all major Iraqi union groups in Amman, Jordan, which issued a manifesto opposing the entire neo-liberal U.S. program for Iraq, including any compromise on national control of oil production.

At a second Amman labor meeting in December of 2006, the Federation of Oil Unions announced its opposition to the pending law even before it was released. Iraq's trade unions, speaking in a single voice, declared that: "Iraqi public opinion strongly opposes the handing of authority and control over the oil to foreign companies, that aim to make big profits at the expense of the people. They aim to rob Iraq's national wealth by virtue of unfair, long term oil contracts that undermine the sovereignty of the State and the dignity of the Iraqi people."

When the bill was made public, oil union president Hassan Jumaa denounced it before yet another protest meeting, stating: "History will not forgive those who play recklessly with our wealth…. We consider the new law unbalanced and incoherent with the hopes of those who work in the oil industry. It has been drafted in a great rush in harsh circumstances."

He then called on the government to consult Iraqi oil experts (who had not participated in drafting the law) and "ask their opinion before sinking Iraq into an ocean of dark injustice."
If the oil workers and their union allies decide to organize protests or strikes, they are likely to have the Iraqi public on their side. Fully three-quarters of Iraqis believe that the United States invaded in order to gain control of Iraqi oil, and most observers believe they will surely agree with the oil workers that this law is a vehicle for that control. Even Iyad Allawi has now publicly taken a stand opposing it, perhaps the best indication that opposition will be virtually unanimous.

Finally -- and no small matter -- the armed resistance is also against the oil law. The Sunni insurgency underscored its opposition by assassinating Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, a major advocate of the pending law, on the day the bill was made public. The significance of the opposition of the Sunni insurgency is amplified by the stance of the Sadrists, the most rebellious segment of the Shia majority. Sadr spokesman Sheikh Gahaith Al Temimi warned journalist Christian Parenti that while the Sadrists would "welcome" foreign investment in oil, they would do so only "under certain conditions. We want our oil to be developed, not stolen. If a bad law were to be passed, all people of Iraq would resist it."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author: Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the Undergraduate College of Global Studies at Stony Brook University, has written extensively on popular protest and insurgency, and on American business and government dynamics. His books include Radical Protest and Social Structure, and Social Policy and the Conservative Agenda (edited, with Clarence Lo). His work on Iraq has appeared on numerous Internet sites including Tomdispatch, Asia Times, Mother Jones, and ZNet, and in print in Contexts, Against the Current, and Z Magazine
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2007/0508struggleiraqioil.htm

[merh]

32. another great article

thanks for posting it.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

30. Excellent post. Thank you! eom

[merh]

33. Be sure you spread it far and wide

It's not the insurgents keeping the battles raging, the death toll mounting, it is the US & GB backed separatist, trying to do their bidding and keep Iraq a nation at civil war despite the nationalists' efforts to unify for the good of Iraq.

[stillcool]

17. So...this report states...

that all this oil is unaccounted for, but the GAO has no idea where it went. It could be smuggling, it could be corruption, it could be pipeline sabotage, or Iraq may have over-stated production. What is the report, reporting?

[hatrack]

25. Oil smuggling? In the Middle East? NO WAY!

NO FUCKING WAY!!!!

[SoCalDem]

28. GW1 was about Kuwaitis "slant drilling" and siphoning off Iraqi oil

So much ado about oil, eh?

[iamthebandfanman]

31. i love this story breaking

because it answers the question everyone has been asking pro-war or anti-war all alike...
and that is...
where is all that oil i thought we were fighting for?!

ope!
found it!


you know, i think the rising gas prices have been baffling to those who support the war. pretty sure they assumed it would mean lower prices and more oil for the country (even if they truely believes the war was for liberation).

heck, ive been totally against the war but i expected us to take the oil and make lower prices...
ive been wondering where all the oil went!
now we know!
it wasnt enough for them to legally make a profit off of blood oil, they had to steal it too and take all the money for themselves!

my friend is on leave from iraq for 15 days, he told me the storys of private companys running things over there is true. i told him they should get those bastards outa there and pay the soldiers more to do the jobs they trained to do. those people are making XXX,XXX money to work in the private sector while the soldier makes diddly skwat.

dosnt ever one see this was only a war for a couple of large corporations? that was the only point to it.
make a selected number of corporations rich beyond their wildest dreams(Mostly haliburton).

if thats not fascism in action, i dont know what is!