q: why did we destroy a 6,000-year-old society?

a: for no-bid contracts to steal their previously nationalized oil, idiot.

exxonmobil, bp, and others are coming back to iraq after saddam hussein nationalized their petroleum industry in the 70s. despite large competition from major firms from other countries such as russia and india, most of the benefits are going to america and britain. surprise surprise.

The first oil contracts for the majors in Iraq are exceptional for the oil industry.

They include a provision that could allow the companies to reap large profits at today’s prices: the ministry and companies are negotiating payment in oil rather than cash.

“These are not actually service contracts,” Ms. Benali said. “They were designed to circumvent the legislative stalemate” and bring Western companies with experience managing large projects into Iraq before the passage of the oil law.

does that mean that gas will get any cheaper? not bloody likely. estimates suggest that "repair work on existing fields could bring Iraq’s output up to roughly four million barrels per day within several years. After new fields are tapped, Iraq is expected to reach a plateau of about six million barrels per day."

to give a sense of perspective, supply has been flat at 85 million barrels/day or so since 2005, as i mentioned in a previous post. if these no-bid contracts wind up running efficiently (if history is any indicator, they won't), this will supply us with, at best, a 7% increase in supply, while demand will continue to spike. and it won't even happen for years.

i guess we can take the "we didn't go to war for oil" argument off of life support now. it's just too bad that this won't even help gas prices at all.