IRAQI OIL

FPIF: Control of Oil Revenues
Iraq Occupation Report

While widespread ransacking was happening in Iraq after Baghdad fell, the U.S. moved swiftly to secure the country’s oil facilities. But in the months since the official end of the war, general looting and sabotage have impeded even the oil industry, frustrating efforts to quickly return oil production to prewar levels.

As of early July, the future of Iraq’s oil is still a matter of speculation. Rehabilitating oil facilities and preparing the ground for an expansion of output will take time. Current projections are that because of widespread looting, it will take 18 months just to return to prewar production levels of 3 million barrels per day. [Neela Banerjee, “Barrels of Oil Exported for the First Time Since the War,” New York Times, June 23, 2003]

The U.S. will has broad control over the Iraqi oil industry, principally by means of a Development Fund for Iraq, into which all of Iraq’s oil export revenues, all funds left over from the UN’s “oil for food” program, and all assets of the former Iraqi government located anywhere in the world are to be transferred. With such broad control, U.S. corporations are well posed to reap enormous profits and control of the oil industry.