How much oil has the allies pumped from Iraq since the invasion?

Question

How much is left?
How long before we get it all and can get the hell out of there?

Answer 1

Very little has been pumped since the invasion, partly because pipelines and pumping facilities are routinely destroyed by the insurgents, but mostly because the idea wasn't to pump a lot of Iraqi oil anyway. The point was to control the oil.

Iraq's OPEC quota has for some time been set at the same level as Iran's, even though Iraq has a lot more oil than Iran. There are approximately 3000 oil wells in Iraq. By contrast, there are nearly 300,000 active oil wells in Texas, and Texas does not have anywhere near the oil reserves that Iraq has. Neither OPEC, and particularly the Saudis, nor the major oil companies want to see a lot of oil start flowing out of Iraq. That would drive down the price and deprive them of the record profits they have been making for the last few years. For instance, ExxonMobil alone made 10 billion dollars in profit -- not income, profit -- in the first quarter of this year alone, more than any company has ever made during a similar period in the history of the world.

As for how much oil is left, there is a whole lot. Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia. That is, if you are looking only at easily extractable oil. Venezuela actually has five times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia, but its oil is in the form of what are called oil tars. The oil is very, very thick, like tar, and is therefore hard to get out of the ground. And there are an estimated two trillion barrels of oil, more than in the entire Middle East, locked up in oil shales under the Rocky Mountains. Again, hard to extract and hard to refine. But it's there.

As to how long it will be before we can get out of Iraq, the intention was never to get out. Oh, to be sure, the plan was for there to be only about twenty or thirty thousand troops left in Iraq by about six months after the invasion, but the plan always envisioned leaving some troops there. That's why KBR, the subsidiary of Halliburton, has been busily building permanent -- or enduring, as the Bush administration calls them -- military bases in Iraq from the earliest days of the invasion. There is no exit plan because they don't plan to exit.

Answer 2

Hard to measure. Israel met with Jordan in 2003 to inquire about re-opening the Haifa pipeline that the British built to Palestine in the 1940's. Since then not much has been publicly said about it. Many believe it is now flowing freely supplying Israel with much needed oil. For those who said none, do you actually believe the lies you spout? Sad.

Answer 3

I don't suspect they would DARE pump any...doens't mean they won't get their hands on it later, but if any of us were caught pumping then it would solidify the BS of the war in front of the entire world.

Right now the BS is only 80% solidified.

Answer 4

Good to the last drop.

Answer 5

All of it! That's why it's so cheap. We are stealing it.

(yes, this is sarcasm)

Answer 6

americans... *sigh*...:-/

Answer 7

none.

Answer 8

NONE!!!!!