Why is the US not taking Oil from Iraq?

Question

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/irqindx.htm
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/iraq.html

I mean, if we did, couldn't we essentially pay for the war?

Alex, your about as persuading as a bowl of chocolate and vanilla ice cream that does not want to be eaten by Michael Moore

Answer 1

That was originally the plan.

Here's a quote from Rumsfeld to that point: “If you worry about just the cost, the money, Iraq is a very different situation from Afghanistan…Iraq has oil. They have financial resources.”

Or there's also Wolfowitz: “There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”

Obviously the pre-war interpretation was that we just needed to throw off the yoke of oppression and Iraqi oil would fund much of the rest. There are lots more quotes like these, if you need them.

But constant breakdowns and terrorist attacks made the flow of oil very irregular. As it is, there's not even enough to meet the needs of Iraqis, much less export huge amounts.

Worse yet, with such irregular flows, few oil companies are willing to send tankers to collect it. Why keep a ship waiting in port for what may be weeks or months when you could send it somewhere else to be profitable? Tankers have been attacked just as oil pipelines have, too, further increasing the risks of doing business with Iraq.

The only way even Iraqis will have a regular oil supply again is for the fighting to die down. I'm sure most of us want that soon!

Answer 2

Many times over.
What the links you pointed to left out is that several large US oil companies have been under contract to manage Iraqi oil production since the US takeover and until the Iraqi government finishes the contracts it's going to be making (which are rigged, as your first article pointed out).
These companies (Exxon, BP, Chevron are the biggest) have been taking Iraqi oil production and selling it on the open market, gaining billions in profit and paying a small fixed price to the Iraqi government (which is artificially low) for the oil.
None of that money goes to the US government, only to the Iraqis and the big oil companies.
If there were any doubt what this war was really over, that should erase it...

Answer 3

The Iraqi oil infrastructure is so old and beat up that it barely works. Plus insurgents/terrorist attack it fairly often which makes it very hard to pump oil. Most Iraqi oil workers have left the country because it's so unsafe so there aren't enough people to work in Iraq's oil industry. Most of Iraq's oil has never even been tapped into.

Answer 4

1) Polictial Correctness - which I could care less about 2) Stupidity 3) How would big US oil companies claim there is a shortage and then show record profits 4) US gov't is claiming Iraq needs it to pay for rebuilding the country. Then why is it cost us billions of US tax dollars for contractors. 5) We arr planning to take Iran's instead.

Answer 5

Yeah, and why not just nuke the country so that every Iraqi is killed then you wouldn't have to bother with the whole war again.. It's cheaper in the long run.

Answer 6

Why should we? Its their oil! Killing their civilians isnt enough for you?
You must be a repub..

Answer 7

Because then we'd have uneducated libs claiming we went into Iraq "for oil."

Oh wait, that's already happening!

Answer 8

Because it's their oil. Not ours.

Answer 9

I know, we should have sucked Iraq dry by now.

Answer 10

emmm they ARE