Quote :

"Iraq Doubles Funding for Oil Imports Thursday August 17, 2006 5:46 PM AP Photo BAG110 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq has doubled the money allocated for importing oil products in August and September to tackle the country's worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster, a senior Iraqi official said Thursday. Even though Iraq has the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, it is forced to depend on imports because of an acute shortage of refined products such as gasoline, kerosene and cooking gas. Sabotage of pipelines by insurgents, corruption and aging refineries have been blamed. Falah Alamri, head of the State Oil Marketing Organization, which is responsible for Iraq's imports of oil products, said the money normally allocated by the government to buy oil products was doubled in August, to $426 million. The normally allocated amount would be doubled for September, too, Alamri told Dow Jones Newswires. A gallon of gasoline now sells on the black market in Baghdad for about $4.92, although its official price is $0.64. Lines of cars at many Baghdad fuel stations stretch several miles, and drivers sometime wait overnight to fill their cars. Iraq has been plagued by periodic fuel shortages since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The current crisis comes amid higher demand for fuel to power generators and cool homes and offices as summer temperatures reach 120 degrees. Alamri said the shortage was further aggravated by the closure of the Beiji refinery north of Baghdad, which produces 140,000 barrels a day. Sabotage of pipelines carrying crude from Kirkuk oil fields shut down the refinery for the last four weeks before resuming operations earlier this week, he said. Iraq's three main oil refineries - Dora, Beiji and Shuaiba - are working at half their capacity, processing only 350,000 barrels per day compared to 700,000 barrels a day before the war. Alamri said the state oil agency would conclude new deals with Turkish companies to supply fuel. "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6021531,00.html

8/23/2006 12:44:35 AM

Don't lie.

You got a boner when you heard this.

8/23/2006 12:45:24 AM

its all going according to plan, huh neocons?

8/23/2006 1:00:34 AM

^^ You're a fucking sick-o.

8/23/2006 1:07:19 AM

it is in Iran's economic interest that Iraq not produce up to capacity

hence the insurgent situation we are in, and the so called nuclear situation they seem to be in

8/23/2006 1:15:39 AM

Iran controls Iraq now, whether we like it or not. The religious influence over the region held by the clerics in Iran is the most important issue of allegiance in the region, and here we are assuming that people will jump behind a western army and parliament. they need support from the clerics, which they wont be getting from them any time soon, at least until they elect their first Islamic Republican.

8/23/2006 2:10:49 AM

Oh it must be really bad if they have to import refined products. And high prices...and waiting in lines...isn't that what drove us to Civil War in the 70s?

8/23/2006 12:08:06 PM

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8/23/2006 12:11:40 PM

Look, I'm not trying to tow the line here, I'm just saying its not like importing oil for a while because of lack of refined products means its utter chaos.

8/23/2006 1:20:04 PM

IN IRAQ?

8/23/2006 1:21:57 PM

Look, a lot of the country is unsafe right now. I'm not denying that the attacks by insurgents have made the country unstable. There are a lot of civil clashes as well, but remember Gamecat that you only hear bad news coming out of Iraq. That's because the story about the millions of families leading their lives in a more normal fashion don't make as good of headlines as bombings at Mosques. Don't let the availability heuristic cloud your thinking.

8/23/2006 1:25:26 PM

Please help me.

Why the fuck not?

8/23/2006 1:32:15 PM

Why the fuck not to what?

8/23/2006 1:46:31 PM

Oil is plentiful in Iraq.

We seized power over 3 years ago.

Billions have been spent reconstructing their infrastructure.

Where's the fucking oil?

8/23/2006 1:49:29 PM

Gamecat! You're smarter than that. Read the god damned article.

Quote :

"Even though Iraq has the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, it is forced to depend on imports because of an acute shortage of refined products such as gasoline, kerosene and cooking gas."

REFINED products are what's hard to come by. The oil they have, but refining it is an entirely different industry.

8/23/2006 1:52:44 PM

That falls under infrastructure.

Where's the fucking oil?

8/23/2006 1:53:21 PM

Refining plants falls under infrastructure for oil extraction? They have oil, and they sell it on the market for oil. A completely different market...for refined products...is where they are importing rather than refining their own oil.

Is someone else on your name? You aren't really stupid enough to think oil = gasoline and kerosene

"What's going on, my country is full of cocoa plants and yet we import most of our Hershey bars!"

8/23/2006 1:56:51 PM

Quote :

"Iraq's three main oil refineries - Dora, Beiji and Shuaiba - are working at half their capacity, processing only 350,000 barrels per day compared to 700,000 barrels a day before the war."

Quote :

""What's going on, my country is full of cocoa plantsoil wells, drills, pipelines, and refineries and yet we import most of our Hershey barsgas!""

I say again: Where's the fucking oil?

[Edited on August 23, 2006 at 2:09 PM. Reason : .]

8/23/2006 2:00:32 PM

Quote :

"Iraq's three main oil refineries - Dora, Beiji and Shuaiba - are working at half their capacity, processing only 350,000 barrels per day compared to 700,000 barrels a day before the war. "

Their refineries are at half capacity, because of the war.

Maybe this is part of Bush's plan... keep their refineries running low, so they have to buy oil, stuffing the pockets of his big-business friends in the oil industry.

8/23/2006 2:02:04 PM

Look, I wasn't arguing they don't refine oil in Iraq, I was arguing with your assessment that oil was somehow missing.

And to you, moron, claiming that this somehow will line the pockets of Bush and his cronies...you can't have it both ways. We invaded the country so we could sell all their oil and line the pockets of Bush and his cronies...and now his plan was to make them need to import refined products to line the pockets of Bush and his cronies?

WTG on the retard of the day award. You people are fucking sick.

8/23/2006 2:04:18 PM

Gamecat, What the fuck is wrong with you?

The oil...half of the oil is in those refineries, the other half went to the open market where it is being taken to refineries in other countries.

There is no "missing" oil. They're simply farming out part of the refining process. Jesus, when school is in session do you just stop trying? I used to count on you for not thinking 1=2 all the damned time.

8/23/2006 2:05:51 PM

Quote :

"bgmims: They're simply farming out part of the refining process. "

You're right. But they're not farming out all of it, and not producing nearly as much oil as they should be. More oil production equates to more capital to create more refineries.

Confirmed by the article cited further down.

Quote :

"Falah Alamri, head of the State Oil Marketing Organization, which is responsible for Iraq's imports of oil products, said the money normally allocated by the government to buy oil products was doubled in August, to $426 million. The normally allocated amount would be doubled for September, too, Alamri told Dow Jones Newswires."

Why double the availability of funds for importing oil products?

This might be one reason...

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13249

Quote :

"Gasoline Crisis in Iraq by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch February 8th, 2006 Contract mismanagement and possible corruption in the Iraqi government are fueling a crisis over international gasoline delivery into Iraq. Citing a mountain of unpaid bills, the governments of Turkey and Saudi Arabia have shut off gasoline exports to Iraq. With its options dwindling and beleaguered Iraqis demanding fuel, Baghdad has begun to negotiate with former arch-rival, Iran. Meanwhile, hundreds of irate Iraqi security guards, who work for the gasoline delivery companies, are threatening to protest along the Kuwait border to demand payment. Government officials in Baghdad and Washington claim that the cause of the gasoline shortage is "insurgent" or "terrorist" activity but the trucking companies say that the problem is often corruption and common criminal activity. Iraq's gasoline comes from two sources: domestic refineries process a limited amount of the nation's crude into gasoline, but it is imports from neighboring nations that run most of the country's vehicles and generators. Saudi Arabia and Turkey supply more than half of Iraq's domestic needs. In August 2005, after Iraq's debt rose into the millions, Saudi Arabia turned off the spigot. On January 21st, after Baghdad's unpaid bill topped a billion dollars, Turkey stopped loading gasoline for Iraq. The supply from Kuwait is also drying up. Lloyd-Owen International (LOI), a Florida-based company, had arranged to truck in 1.3 billion liters of gasoline from the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation to gas stations throughout Iraq over the last 19 months. On February 2, Alan Waller, chief executive officer of LOI, stopped supplies to Baghdad because of payment arrears. By this weekend, Iraq's imports had plummeted from the previous norm of 12 million liters a day to three million. In a strongly worded letter he emailed to this weekend to Thomas Delare, the economic counselor at the United States embassy in Baghdad, Waller wrote: "The government of Iraq is unwilling to pay what is correctly owed us or even meet to discuss and that we cannot get any assistance from the U.S. administration in order to help. As such, I can only step back and pull all my international staff out of Iraq for their own safety and let the Iraqi people deal with the situation in their own way." Waller claimed that the government of Iraq has illegally canceled his contract and is now negotiating with a different U.S. company, Global Network Transportation, to deliver fuel in Iraq. The non-payment has infuriated the Iraqi security guards on LOI's payroll, who threaten to line 400 trucks along the one-lane highway from Iraq to Kuwait to blockade the border. In late 2003, local suppliers were charging 96 cents a gallon to purchase and deliver gasoline while Halliburton of Houston, Texas, charged an average of $2.65 a gallon for the same service via its sub-contractor Altanmia Commercial Marketing Company. In spring 2004, shortly before the country was handed over to the Iraqis, the U.S. military said the contract was too expensive and canceled it. The new Iraqi government then awarded an identical gasoline supply contract to LOI and its partners, Geotech Environmental Services of Kuwait. LOI charged one-seventh of Altanmia's price for delivery, a mere 18 cents a gallon compared to the premium that the military had paid Halliburton previously. Waller says LOI has delivered 37,000 tankers of gasoline throughout Iraq over the last 19 months "without losing a single tanker to insurgent or terrorist activity," unlike Halliburton 's convoys which were frequently attacked. LOI/Geotech's contract was supposed to run through June 2006, but is now in doubt. Production Slump To make matters worse, sabotage and cold weather have plunged Iraq's own oil production and refining into crisis. Despite sitting on the world's third biggest oil reserves, Iraq's exports slumped from a high of 2.1 million barrels per day just 1.1 million barrels a day in December, their lowest level since the war in 2003. This slide, together with the delivery crisis, has led to major gasoline shortages in Baghdad, where vulnerable drivers wait in quarter-mile-long lines. The capital's erratic electricity has exacerbated the problem by forcing people to run to gas-hungry generators to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running in their houses and stores. No matter what else was wrong under Saddam Hussein, gasoline and kerosene cooking oil were always available and cheap. The U.S. government maintained this policy of supplying gasoline at just 20 cents a gallon, well below its actual cost. But the cash-strapped Iraqi government has recently changed that policy, tripling gasoline prices at the end of the year, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund. This price hike has become a major source of anger but it bought Baghdad a $685 million IMF loan on December 24, 2005. Contention over the price increase split the ministry of oil, which is supposed to oversee production and distribution. Iraq's oil minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum was first asked to leave his post in late December 2005, when he protested the fuel price increase. Although al-Ulum returned to his job in early January, a week ago the government again asked him to resign. Refinery Attacks Blame for the crisis spreads as easily as oil in a puddle. Government officials in Baghdad and Washington charge that corrupt mid- and low-level officials are collaborating with "insurgents" who have created chaos by attacking domestic fuel convoys and pipelines and siphoning off supplies to sell at a profit. Ali Allawi, Iraq's finance minister, was quoted in the February 4 New York Times saying that 40 to 50 percent of all oil-smuggling profits in the country are diverted away from the government. By infiltrating senior management positions at the major northern refinery in Baiji and threatening truck drivers, insurgents have been able to tap into pipelines, empty trucks, and sell the oil or gas themselves, he says. Old fashioned corruption has made matters worse. Theft was rife at the Baiji refinery Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, said the chair of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity. One example is an Iraqi member of parliament from the Conciliation and Liberation Bloc, Meshaan al-Juburi, who stole money earmarked for armed security he promised to provide, according to the New York Times. Jubiri's tribe is powerful in Salahuddin Province, through which the oil pipeline from Baiji runs. He has since fled the country and is now believed living in Syria. In another incident, the director of a major oil storage plant near Kirkuk was arrested this weekend with other employees and several local police officials. They were charged with helping to orchestrate a March 2 mortar attack on the plant, a Northern Oil Company employee told the New York Times. But Waller told CorpWatch that while "terrorist" groups are responsible for many violent attacks, the main problem is criminal gangs and poor people trying to survive. "This country is like Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union." "Members of the U.S. military have said on CNN that long fuel lines in Baghdad are due to insurgent activity - not true," the LOI executive says. The real problem is "very simple. Lack of payment is forcing Iraq into chaos and corruption." Indeed al-Ulum, the former oil minister, told the London-based newspaper Al Hayat late last year that "oil and fuel smuggling networks have grown into a dangerous mafia threatening the lives of those in charge of fighting corruption" according to a BBC translation. Working on a Resolution With gasoline supplies dwindling and anger growing, Washington and Baghdad are scrambling to return Iraq to what passes for normal. Iraqi oil ministry officials say that the payments will resume soon. "The oil ministry is working with the government in order to speed up the payment process. There is no problem. It is just a matter of time and the money will be paid," ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told reporters."

[Edited on August 23, 2006 at 2:27 PM. Reason : ...]

8/23/2006 2:15:01 PM

You're quite right that adding those costs are not economically efficient. The war-zone and following insurgency have made a major economic impact that is now being paid for by importing the refined products at a higher cost than if they refined it themselves. However, right now, they must do that because the cost of building new refineries/fixing up the broken down ones makes it cheaper and more efficient to import than to refine for the short term.

Also, what's the base rate there. They are doubling the money used to purchase the oil...but are they also increasing energy usage. What I mean here is, remember how a lot of Iraq was out of electricity and business wasn't going on as usual in a lot of the country. Could this increase in oil imports have something to do with an increase in oil usage as well.

Granted, the refineries need to be repaired eventually to restore efficiency in the long run, but right now it isn't any big deal to be operating at half-capacity and importing given the state of their refineries.

8/23/2006 2:22:44 PM

Quote :

"U.S. embassy officials are more pessimistic. "I scheduled to have some high level meetings in the next several days with Ministry of Oil officials," Delare wrote to Waller on February 6. "I wish I had encouraging news for you, but despite our efforts to resolve the payments arrears problems, we have had no success so far," the embassy economic counselor in Baghdad added. In an e-mail update to CorpWatch, Delare added: "The fuel situation is regarded as a very serious matter that is prompting daily contact between embassy and the government at all levels -- from the ambassador and his counterparts to more technical staff and their interlocutors." But officials in Baghdad do have another fallback plan -- their one-time arch enemy, Iran, which is close to the current Iraqi government. Indeed this subject was discussed as far back as last July when Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari visited Tehran, a prospect that mystifies Waller given the ongoing political disputes between Iran and the U.S. government. "Due to payment issues and the fuel problems the U.S. backed government of Iraq is now seeking to purchase and import fuel from Iran, and Najaf is the new Iranian capital of Iraq," Alan Waller, chief executive officer LOI, wrote on February 4th, to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad."

8/23/2006 2:27:27 PM

Quote :

"bgimms: We invaded the country so we could sell all their oil and line the pockets of Bush and his cronies."

Haha, that's crazy talk.

8/23/2006 2:27:42 PM

Hey look, the makings of a democratic strategist!

Cheap shot, but funny...

8/23/2006 2:33:04 PM

So, they can't get refined oil from Saudi Arabia or Turkey anymore because they can't pay their bills. Guess no one's really to blame for that...

Also, the oil minister quit in January.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/02/news/iraq.php

Quote :

"Iraqi aide resigns as oil output plunges BAGHDAD The Iraqi oil minister resigned Monday as gasoline shortages worsened and official figures for December showed that oil exports remained at or near their lowest point since the war began in March 2003. The oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, quit after being placed on leave for condemning government price increases that tripled the cost of gasoline last month, setting off protests and long lines at the nation's gasoline pumps. Oil exports averaged about 1.3 million barrels a day in December, far below exports of about two million barrels a day before the war, Bahr al-Uloum said. Rough weather in the Gulf was a major factor in the poor production levels, he said. The figures disclosed Monday by Iraqi officials shed new light on the severe weaknesses in Iraq's energy infrastructure driven by acute electricity shortages and insurgent attacks on two large refineries that spurred a fuel crisis in Baghdad. ... "

Demand is going up in Iraq, but that increase is tied to their failing power situation. They're just fucked all over the place now. Wish somebody was actually accountable for that...

[Edited on August 23, 2006 at 2:44 PM. Reason : .]

8/23/2006 2:35:23 PM

And this kind of thing never happens after wars...Germany's economy was full steam ahead 5 years after the war

Japan was topping the global GDP after 5 years...

The US was straight up successful after the revolutionary and civil wars...

give it time for God's sake

8/23/2006 2:40:23 PM

How much time is "soon?"

Quote :

"We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon. - March '03"

[Edited on August 23, 2006 at 2:54 PM. Reason : lying prick]

8/23/2006 2:54:02 PM

So...now our tax dollars are going to help import oil to Iraq.

8/23/2006 3:10:44 PM

Gamecat...soon could mean a week or a decade...
In terms of a country being up and running fully and without any aid in the middle east...you'd have to be a fool to have ever believed it meant less than 5 years.

You should have asked...

8/23/2006 3:30:38 PM

I did.

I guess I couldn't be heard over all the 9/11 and freedom fries in your ears.

But that's ok. You seem to have enough rhetoric left in you to see Iraq to the end.

8/23/2006 3:55:04 PM

why don't you actually have a discussion about the rebuilding instead of calling his opinions rhetoric and running away?

8/23/2006 4:01:29 PM

There's really no need.

It's not rebuilt.

And can't be.

They don't want us there and will continue to blow up shit until we leave.

[Edited on August 23, 2006 at 4:58 PM. Reason : ...]

8/23/2006 4:58:16 PM

Hey, I thought we should enter Iraq because I thought they had weapons of mass destruction as well as being run by an idealogue who could conceivably be the next Hitler.

When we found no weapons, I was disappointed, but not distraught, because a)The intelligence might have still been right and they sent the weapons to Syria or elsewhere, b)An intelligence failure of this magnitude needs to be fixed, but I'd rather find out before we get nuked that we need to revamp intelligence, and c)We toppled a ruthless killer and are going to see a free Iraq.

Are things rosy there? No, not at all. Are things beyond repair? No, not at all.

Mr. Joshua makes a good point, the rebuilding plan is more important than pointing out that you think my views are wrong (and vice versa, of course). For me, trying to get the economy into a capitalist mode will do the trick. There is ethnic strife there, to be sure, but I think it can be reasonably settled in the future. It will be difficult, but it can be settled. Once we get the economy back on track, if they want to divide into two, so be it. But let us start the country with a fighting chance before we leave it.

8/23/2006 5:00:06 PM

reading this ive realized that its hilarious that the conservatives have some sort of faith in the muslims where as the liberals realize that they are all crazy mother fuckers with little prospect of anything above a theocracy.

at least thats my take

8/23/2006 5:09:13 PM

Dental...that many American liberals have done a good deal of stereotyping and showed a great deal of racism is not news to anyone.

8/23/2006 5:10:52 PM

its not new to white people as a whole

i just seems hilarious that the right is hiding it where as the left just doesnt seem to give a fuck.

8/23/2006 5:12:20 PM

Quote :

"bgmims: For me, trying to get the economy into a capitalist mode will do the trick. There is ethnic strife there, to be sure, but I think it can be reasonably settled in the future. It will be difficult, but it can be settled."

Ethnic strife affects the leadership's ability to effectively govern. Government exists expressly to supercede and regulate the economic system. Without first fixing the ethnic strife, the economic system will be paralyzed by its corrupting influence on the government.

When Iraq is having to import gas now due to its worst fuel shortage--INCLUDING THE AFTERMATH OF "SHOCK AND AWE"--because the pipelines running into the country's refineries and elsewhere are continually being blown up, I'd say it's pretty damned obvious that I'm right.

Quote :

"bgmims: Once we get the economy back on track, if they want to divide into two, so be it. But let us start the country with a fighting chance before we leave it."

Why not let them start their own 3 democratic countries instead?

---

^ I don't find your assessment correct at all.

The right thinks a militarily imposed democracy's the silver bullet.

The left thinks its cultural and should be addressed more subtly through policy.

8/23/2006 5:28:16 PM

^ neither of those work and thats the problem

8/23/2006 5:52:47 PM

I'm not entirely convinced the second has been tried, yet. A big reason I've got this reputation as a firebrand liberal rests solely on that fact. It's not that I'm a liberal--not at all, at all--it's just that I think we've pretty much seen the upper limit of what can be, or ever should be, accomplished militarily.

I'm not convinced we've seen the upper limit of what could be accomplished through other, more cooperative means.

8/23/2006 6:00:23 PM

Quote :

"reading this ive realized that its hilarious that the conservatives have some sort of faith in the muslims where as the liberals realize that they are all crazy mother fuckers with little prospect of anything above a theocracy."

Ever think about running for politics on that platform?

Muslims:

Crazy Mother Fuckers That Don't Deserve Freedom

Vote Dentaldamn '08

8/23/2006 6:06:17 PM

someone who does nothing to progress their state of freedom has no need for it in the first place.

8/23/2006 6:09:21 PM

hey, come on. jordan, turkey, morocco, they're all cool countries.

8/23/2006 6:22:46 PM

^^^ I spend a lot of time wondering if that's true. Seriously.

It's almost never talked about, ever, but it's central to the issue facing us with Iraq. Here that's what little philosophical fruit this entire conflict has born in my mind. The questions usually look like this: (1) what is freedom?, (2) is it the same between individuals cross-culturally?, (3) does freedom evolve with culture?, (4) can one culture's idea of freedom be successfully transposed onto another?, (5) what ways are the most effective for oppressed people to obtain freedom?

[Edited on August 23, 2006 at 6:25 PM. Reason : ...]

8/23/2006 6:24:38 PM

the man who once owned dominos wants to start a catholic socieity that will ban birth control and condoms and many forms of media. Church im sure will be manditory and all of the residence must be catholic and follow catholic dogma.

are these people free? should we invade and protect these poor people?

8/23/2006 6:39:51 PM

I think we're onto something...look for the thread.

8/23/2006 6:57:30 PM