Posted on 05/12/2007 4:49:12 AM PDT by kellynla
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country’s oil industry.
The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.
Iraq and the State Department, which reports the numbers, have been under relentless pressure to show tangible progress in Iraq by raising production levels, which have languished well below the United States goal of three million barrels a day. Virtually the entire economy of Iraq is dependent on oil revenues.
The draft report, expected to be released within the next week, was prepared by the United States Government Accountability Office with the help of government energy analysts, and was provided to The New York Times by a separate government office that received a review copy. The accountability office declined to provide a copy or to discuss the draft.
Paul Anderson, a spokesman for the office, said only that “we don’t discuss draft reports.”
But a State Department official who works on energy issues said that there were several possible explanations for the discrepancy, including the loss of oil through sabotage of pipelines and inaccurate reporting of production in southern Iraq,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Your expertise is needed here.
We couldn’t find the WMD and now we can’t find the oil? What gives?
This knowledge has been around for some time and oil smuggling is widespread in Iraq. I’ve seen reports about it for a couple of years now.
I guess the Al Qeda cheerleader in the US "News" media cannot be bothered to discuss THIS aspect of the story. No instead they spin the LEAST likely answer as "Fact" and spend the least amount of time possible on all the more probably answers that do not fit with their political bigotry on Iraq.
Wrong on both counts. Try again when you get a clue.
I have a clue, but a clue isn’t going to prove the WMD went to Syria. A clue isn’t going to prove how the oil mysteriously disappeared. Bush should have quit pussy footing around and start shoving it back at the naysayers in cold hard facts.
100,000 gallons a day is a pretty big leak/
I think it could be found if anyone started looking.
How does anyone know how much oil is “missing”? We don’t even know how many illegal aliens are in the U.S.. This whole story from the N.Y. Times (aka Al Jazeera) is bogus.
I think I found it at $3.15 a gallon.
Enormous coal and oil fields still lie untapped.Needed refineries are still unbuilt.Those who try to deploy alternatives such as wind farms,private hydro, and solar even at their own expense must contend with confusing and often contradictory rules.Proven nuclear technology is ignored;fuel rods that could be reprocessed aren't.
Americans have somehow deluded themselves instead thinking we should enjoy the steak without needing the manure pile and butcher.
An irrational people say they want jobs but then protest building new factories,refineries,or mines.
Are Americans insane?
Don't tell anyone.
without sidetracking this thread, we have spent years here on FR dealing with the WMD...
the total cache of WMD could be stored in a two car garage.
and it is very possible that the WMD are still in Iraq, were dumped in the Euphrates river, possibly shipped out of Iraq to either Iran or Syria before and/or during the invasion.
As far as I am concerned though, the day we captured Saddam was the day we found the WMD. And whether the WMD were or will ever be found is irrelevant. We took out a verrrrrry bad actor, liberated 25 million people and fighting the muzzie terrorists on their sand and not ours.
But back to THIS ISSUE OF OIL...
It's barrels, not gallons and a barrel of oil is 42 gallons. 100,000 to 300,000 bbls/day is a loss of from 4.2 to 12.6 million gallons a day.
Taken a shower yet? :>)
I wonder if we had spent the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of this four year war instead developing and expanding our own energy production it would not have been more effective.
That’s not possible and you know it. The Greens have seen to it that we can’t depend on our own resources. Insane is right but lay the blame where it belongs. Americans aren’t insane but the Greens have effectively silenced the opposition with fairy tales of drowning polar bears.
LOL. Smartass. :-P
Why does this come as a shock?
Great summary,
without sidetracking this thread, we have spent years here on FR dealing with the WMD...
the total cache of WMD could be stored in a two car garage.
and it is very possible that the WMD are still in Iraq, were dumped in the Euphrates river, possibly shipped out of Iraq to either Iran or Syria before and/or during the invasion.
As far as I am concerned though, the day we captured Saddam was the day we found the WMD. And whether the WMD were or will ever be found is irrelevant. We took out a verrrrrry bad actor, liberated 25 million people and fighting the muzzie terrorists on their sand and not ours.
But back to THIS ISSUE OF OIL...
Democrats are burning it at a record pace, because
carbon credit prices dropped.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.