Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq

In a story published by the New York Times, between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for. The reports used an average of $50 a barrel which translates to almost $15 million daily is missing. Almost 2 million barrels are pumped by Iraq every day, so over 10% of the oil production is being siphoned off and no one knows where it is going. The report, which was prepared by the United States GAO, states that the oil may be part of an overstatement of production levels in an effort by Iraq and the State Department to show progress in Iraq. But it can also be part of inaccurate reporting or theft by Shiite militias.

The article quotes Philip K. Verleger Jr., an independent economist and oil expert, “That’s a staggering amount of oil to lose every month, but given everything else that’s been written about Iraq, it’s not a surprise.”

Read the entire New York Times article here.

plez sez: one of the biggest blunders in the history of the US military is being compounded by this discovery. we are pouring billions of our taxpayers money into a lost cause, while the Iraqi's are pissing away billions more in oil revenues.

if the figures are simply part of an overstatement by the Iraqi's, then it is obvious that the "recovery" in war-torn Iraq isn't going much better than the "recovery" in Katrina-torn New Orleans! if the oil is being siphoned off and sold on the black market, then our troops are protecting a source of income for the insurgents who are shooting at them every day! this war has been a lose-lose situation for the US, since our jets first strafed Baghdad back in March 2003.

In light of his most recent veto, Congress has to go back to President Bush with an ultimatum on financing this war: we either begin to pull out of Iraq now or Congress will no longer fund the war. PERIOD! since 2003, this war has been plagued with poor execution, a private vendetta (by Bush against Saddam Hussein), an amorphous target (The Terrorist Boogeyman), and too few troops to secure the region ... we cannot win the war.

HELL! we're only there because of the oil anyway and we can't even keep up with that! let's cut our losses, save the remaining soldiers' lives who are heroically fighting in a losing battle, secure our borders against additional terrorist attacks, beef up our international intelligence, and rejoin the world community!