Buttman as usual and once again, your intellect ONLY surpasses your agenda IN ITS ILLTERACY AND INACCUARCY.
“Although Iraq's unemployment rate remains high (perhaps 30%), the overall Iraqi economy appears to be recovering rapidly from its condition just after the war, fueled in large part by U.S. and international reconstruction aid. For 2004, Iraqi real GDP growth is expected by Global Insight to reach 37% (and 41% in 2005), following a 21.2% decline in 2003, on top of more than a decade of economic stagnation and decline.”
IRAQI OIL

Overall, between April 2003 and late September 2004,
there were an estimated 123 attacks on Iraqi energy infrastructure, including the country's 4,350-mile-long pipeline system and 11,000-mile-long power grid.
In response to these attacks, which have cost Iraq billions of dollars in lost oil export revenues and repair costs, the U.S. military set up Task Force Shield to guard Iraq's energy infrastructure, particularly the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
In August 2003, a South African security company, Erinys International, won a $40 million contract to train 6,500 armed guard to protect Iraqi oil wells, pipelines, refineries, power plants, etc. As of September 2004, Erinys was operating, on behalf of the Iraqi Oil Ministry and Task Force Shield, as part of a $100 million joint contract, with around 14,000 guards (mainly Iraqi nationals). In support of Erinys, Florida-based AirScan Inc. provides aerial surveillance of Iraqi pipelines.
Under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi pipelines were guarded in part by local tribes, and in part by two army divisions dedicated to the task.”Historically, Iraqi production peaked in December 1979 at 3.7 million bbl/d, and then in July 1990, just prior to its invasion of Kuwait, at 3.5 million bbl/d. From 1991, Iraqi oil output increased slowly, to 600,000 bbl/d in 1996. With Iraq's acceptance in late 1996 of U.N. Resolution 986, which allowed limited Iraqi oil exports in exchange for food and other supplies ("oil-for-food"), the country's oil output began increasing more rapidly, to 1.2 million bbl/d in 1997, 2.2 million bbl/d in 1998, and around 2.5 million bbl/d during 1999-2001. Iraqi monthly oil output increased in the last few months of 2002 and into early 2003, peaking at around 2.58 million bbl/d in January 2003, just before the war. As of early November 2004, Iraqi production (on a net basis) had reached perhaps 2.0 million bbl/d, with "gross" production (including reinjection, water cut, and "unaccounted for" oil) of around 2.2 million bbl/d. [U]For the first ten months of 2004, Iraqi crude oil output was averaging around 2.0 million bbl/d.[./U] Although Iraq is a member of OPEC, its oil output has not been constrained by OPEC quotas since it resumed oil exports in December 1996.
Proven Oil Reserves (1/1/04E): 115.0 billion barrels (around 75 billion barrels of which has not yet been developed; "probable" and "possible" reserves are as high as 220 billion barrels)
Oil Production (11/04E; net): 1.9 million bbl/d (gross production is around 2.1 million bbl/d, including 200,000 bbl/d of "reinjection" and other "unaccounted for" oil); (2003E): 1.32 million bbl/d
Pre-War Oil Production (January-February 2003E): 2.58 million barrels per day (bbl/d), with around 2.1 million bbl/d of exports
Pre-war Oil Production Capacity, Maximum Sustainable: 2.8-3.0 million bbl/d (declining by about 100,000 bbl/d per year)
Current Oil Production Capacity, Maximum Sustainable (9/04E): 2.3 million bbl/dOil Export Routes: Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline; Mina al-Bakr port; to Jordan and Turkey via truck; reportedly to Syria via the Kirkuk-Banias pipeline; smuggling by boat along the Gulf coast
Oil Consumption (2002E): 510,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) (2003E): 300,000 bbl/d (2004E): 400,000 bbl/d
Net Oil Exports (2002E): 1.53 million bbl/d (2003E): 1.02 million bbl/d (2004E): 1.65 million bbl/d
U.S. Oil Imports from Iraq (2003E): 470,000 bbl/d (down from 795,000 bbl/d during 2001) (January-May 2004E): 657,000 bbl/d”
LEAVING over 1 MILLION BARRELS/DAY EXPORTED OR GOING TO EUROPE, JAPAN and elsewhere! Oops, ONCE AGAIN BUTTMAN!!http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/iraq.htmlThat is all!
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