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Iraq is beginning to assign contracts to extract oil from existing fields. Many of these contracts will be more political than economic in their selection. The problem of virtual Kurdish autonomy must also be addressed, but the completely disarming of the Sadr battalions in the south has been completely ignored by our MSM which is completely investing in American failure & is in total denial about the success of the surge [read the bleating of moronic NYT Op Ed theater critic Rich about the dearth of photos of dead American soldiers.]
Actually, the major enterprise facing the Iraqi Oil Ministry is drilling for new crude in the Mesopotamian Foredeep, perhaps the richest lode of untapped high-quality crude in the world. While International Editor of the Oil Daily, i interviewed a senior geologist of the Iraqi Ministry at the World Geological Congress held in DC about 15 years ago. This gentleman said that his Ministry geologists didn't do seismic in the desert areas outside of the rich southern fields because "they didn't like roughing it."
Test boreholes did bring up late Jurassic GASOLINE & other super-high quality crudes, he told me, but the holes were capped until they could be exploited later. He did say that the deeper they drilled, the higher the quality. That was using '70s technology, as SOMO & the Ministry hadn't upgraded their equipment or technology due to other priorities. [Remember that Iraq was a Socialist government with a militarist culture led by Saddam.]
I sure would like to be the company that gets the contract to explore the virgin fields in the Mesopotamian Foredeep.
2 comments :
Unfortunately, for the real thinkers of America, it has just so happened.
I read an opinion today by Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta-Constitution Journal in which she decries the upcoming "no-bid contracts" for SERVICE contracts in Iraq.
Ms. Tucker would lead us to believe that the war was in fact to secure the oil future of the United States all the while lining the pockets of those "evil" oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell and Total.
Got news for this person. . .just who the hell else is qualified to "service" the oil fields of Iraq? Should it be Gazprom or the now government controlled Yukos? Or how about the communist Chinese with CNPC? Should we let them get their hands on this oil? Heck, if you like $4.00 per gallon, how about $10 or $20.
Our "competitors" in the energy markets ARE NOT our friends. They could live without the United States just as easily as we could live without American Idol and Larry King.
We are in a new paradigm when it comes to energy. The demonization of "Big Oil" has to pass, and the realization of new technologies must COME TO PASS, lest we continue to pour our hard earned dollars into the pockets of the people that want to see us dead.
And as far as her assertion of "hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead", she is flat wrong.
She finishes her diatribe by verifying her complete ignorance about the importance of oil for the Untied States by saying, "The U.S. government could have spent $500 billion on an Apollo mission-like search for alternative energy and still had about $500 billion to hand to Americans as gasoline subsidies. And we would have been well on the way toward freeing ourselves from the troubled Middle East."
Cynthia, I suggest you be the first to go into outer space searching for the "new" energy. In the meantime, we will continue our effort to corral the ignorance of the world in an effort to catch up with the 21st century. We are in the 21st century, aren't we?
Thanks for a great post Dave and by the way, that's a f'n huge cat you got there!
My cat Dumpling is 10K of love & dog-like devotion. A Maine Coon who talks to me all the time. Very voluble. He makes a lot more sense than Cynthia T, who deserves a Pulitzer as much as Al Gore deserves a Nobel or El Baradei did before the fattest Al ever to receive it.
Is there something in the water in Atlanta that drains brains of all sense? James Earl Carter suffers from the same moronic stupidity as the Atlanta Constipation, as Rush rightly calls the fecalest newspaper in the East. Like the moronic coach of the Falcons who called Brett Favre a "wasted draft pick?" The one who left tickets for Elvis?
Anyhow, the Iraqis know that the US has the best service technology & exploration tech too, [except for Brazil's Petrobras, which is best deep offshore].
Thanks for the thanks, and my cat Dumpling is much smarter than Carter, Tucker, & most Dem politicians for that matter. Plus he has a better attitude!
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