“Iraq is poised to flood the oil market by tripling its capacity to pump crude by 2020 and is collaborating with Iran on strategy in a move that will challenge Saudi Arabia’s grip on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. “We feel the world needs to be assured of fuel for economic growth,” Hussain al-Shahristani, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy in Iraq told oil industry delegates attending a Chatham House Middle East energy conference. Al Shahristani said on Tuesday that Iraq plans to boost its capacity to produce oil to 9m barrels a day (bpd) by the end of the decade as Baghdad rushes to bolster its economy, which is still shattered by war and internal conflict. Iraq was producing 3m bpd in December, according to the International Energy Agency. Iraq’s intention to challenge Saudi Arabia’s status as the “swing producer”……………..”
This was bound to happen. With thirty-five years of wars and unrest and Western blockades, it is a wonder Iraq and Iran have produced as much oil as they did. It was normal that the sharp reduction of Iraqi and Iranian production and exports led to a sort of Saudi hegemony of the Middle East petroleum equation, at least in the Persian Gulf region. This has been the case for about 35 years. Not only the damage to oil facilities and the boycotts, but also the lack of adequate new exploration and the updating of actual total reserves for so long. All this seems about to change; it already has in the case of Iraq.
The Saudi princes are aware that their influence and leverage around the world depends on their perceived role as the “swing” producer of crude. Their political leverage in the capitals of Europe and Washington is at stake. That explains the real main motive behind their frantic push for a continuation of the Western economic blockade of Iran. It even explains their “Wikileak-ed” past push for a new American war on Iran. It has nothing to do with any nuclear program, real or imagined: it is the petroleum, stupid; it is the influence, stupid.
I list here a few other links on this possibly exciting topic:
Beggar Thy OPEC Neighbor: Oil and the Economics of Nuclear Programs……
Impact of Lower Oil Prices on Gulf Potentates, Gross Princely Product………
Huffington on Iraq and Iran: Flawed Path to a Good Conclusion……
Drill Baby Drill: OPEC Quotas, Iranian-Saudi Oil Rivalry, and the Obama Blockade……..
Will Iraq Revise the Gulf Oil Equation?……….
Petroleum Chat: from Tehran through Baghdad to Riyadh and Caracas………
Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia: Coming Oil and Gas Wars and Regional Hegemony…….
Petroleum Rivalries Turning OPEC Upside Down………
Cheers
mhg
