[Willie Green]

U.S. Petroleum & Crude Oil Overview
(thousand barrels per day)

	1960	1965	1970	1975	1980	1985	1990	1995	2000
U.S. Crude Oil Production	7,035	7,804	9,637	8,375	8,597	8,971	7,355	6,560	5,834
U.S. Petroleum Imports	1,815	2,468	3,419	6,056	6,909	5,067	8,018	8,835	11,093
Total	8,850	10,272	13,056	14,431	15,506	14,038	15,373	15,395	16,927
Imports as % of Total	20.5	24.0	26.2	42.0	44.6	36.1	52.2	57.4	65.5

[billybudd]

Gee, I sure hope the US can secure this very important pipeline. But you know what, US special forces happen to be in Georgia fighting terrorists! I'm sure they can help out with the pipeline while they're there.

[KC Burke]

The ping you hear is the sound of a gold bar hitting an oil drum.

[Shermy]

Gee, that pipeline doesn't look like it's going thru Afghanistan. Better tell Phil Donahue.

< /sarcasm>

[marron]

This project was stymied for years due in part to the Kurdish insurrection in eastern Turkey. The capture of the Kurdish commander and his subsequent help in negotiating at least a temporary end to the fighting is what made this project feasible.

It also gives the Kurds veto power over Turkey's nascent oil industry. The Turks will have to deal with the Kurds.

At the same time this project will bring industrial employment into some of the remotest areas in the world. This does not guarantee a permanent end to the fighting, but it offers a chance.

In the aftermath of the upcoming festivities in Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan may inherit a portion of Iraq's oil wealth, since the northern oil fields are in Kurdish territory, or what was Kurdish prior to Saddam's ethnic cleansing.

If Turkey is smart, she will make herself Kurdistan's number one investor. If Turkey want's to hold on to her own Kurdish provinces, she needs to make herself the indispensable partner to Kurds on both sides of the line.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the good news!