China Is Reaping Biggest Benefits of Iraq Oil Boom
Source: New York Times 6/3, p. A1
Since the American-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one of the worlds top oil producers, and China is now its biggest customer.
China already buys nearly half the oil that Iraq produces, nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, and is angling for an even bigger share, bidding for a stake now owned by Exxon Mobil in one of Iraqs largest oil fields.
The Chinese are the biggest beneficiary of this post-Saddam oil boom in Iraq, said Denise Natali, a Middle East expert at the National Defense University in Washington. They need energy, and they want to get into the market.
Before the invasion, Iraqs oil industry was sputtering, largely walled off from world markets by international sanctions against the government of Saddam Hussein, so his overthrow always carried the promise of renewed access to the countrys immense reserves. Chinese state-owned companies seized the opportunity, pouring more than $2 billion a year and hundreds of workers into Iraq, and just as important, showing a willingness to play by the new Iraqi governments rules and to accept lower profits to win contracts.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/world/middleeast/china-reaps-biggest-benefits-of-iraq-oil-boom.html?pagewanted=all
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)"There is huge demand for our oil. Some customers are trying to avoid Iran and buy from us instead."
Asian buyers of Iran's crude have cut back sharply as tough Western sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program make it increasingly difficult to pay for and ship the oil.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2013/04/12/Bottlenecks-put-brakes-on-Iraq-s-oil-export-growth.html
4bucksagallon
(975 posts)In case you couldn't guess dumber was Bush and dumb was Cheney.
RevStPatrick
(2,208 posts)...in the form of cheap Chinese made consumer goods. And, we used our military to secure that oil for one of our biggest creditors.
stuffmatters
(2,574 posts)America's taxpayers forced to pay costs/damage (economic, environmental, health, political) forever , Multinationals profiteer ( eg KBR, Halliburton, Bechtel,Koch) and China gets the Iraq oil, Afghanistan's cyber minerals, Tar Sands oil shipped from Koch refineries in Tx tax free zones.
The business model has become appallingly predictable.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)China always will be massive users of any basic cheapest resourses they can get their hands on.
And now they in the past decade have become meat eaters, that consumption has increased 100 fold. We can sell them coal to grill all those pork steaks