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WAR FOR OIL? (added 2/9/03)
by Melissa Howland
"As we gather tonight our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers." George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech sent a chill down my back. He went on to talk about the economy, but one line stayed imprinted in my mind. "…Our nation is at war…"
The U.S. is ready to plunge into war with Iraq, not because Iraq has alleged weapons of mass destruction but to control the country’s oil reserves. George W. Bush is simply finishing up what his father started. Both father and son have some connection to oilfields in Texas. However, more oil means more money. If Americans were able to grasp onto Iraqi oil production, American companies would have "better leverage in getting sub-contracting projects" in Iraq and would be able to stop Baghdad "from resuming full oil production," a top executive of an oil company anonymously stated.
Iraq has an estimated 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and is second in oil production only to Saudi Arabia. They produced an average of 2 million barrels a day in 2002, with a domestic consumption of only 400,000 barrels a day. The rest was exported under the United Nation’s food-for-oil program. The food-for-oil program was instated to provide for "the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people." This enables Iraqis to sell specified dollar amounts of oil over six month periods for the purchase of humanitarian supplies for distribution in Iraq with UN supervision.
Iraq as a nation is in deep poverty. During the 1980s and the 1990s Iraq suffered two major wars; the Iran-Iraq war and the Kuwait war, and more than a decade of economic sanctions. As a result, Iraq’s economy and society have deteriorated significantly. Iraq claims that oil production expansion has been held back by the refusal of the United Nations to provide Iraq with oil industry equipment they have requested.
Iraqi oil is sold to different countries, with a breakup of 30% of oil going to Russian firms and the remaining 70% of oil purchased by companies from many countries including Cyprus, Sudan, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Egypt, Italy, and the Ukraine. Iraq oil is then resold to oil companies before being purchased by the end users. In 2001 over 30% of the oil went to the United States. The United States imported an average of 566,000 barrels per day in 2002. If the United States gained control of Iraq, it would also gain control of Iraqi oil.
The United States accounts for 25 percent of world oil consumption, but has only three percent of proven oil reserves. At the current time oil production is at about 19.4 million barrels per day. Oil consumption in the United States continues to rise every year and is expected to peak between 2010 and 2020. Since 1973, oil consumption has risen twelve percent, and in the transportation sector consumption has risen forty-two percent since 1973. Oil imports have also been on the increase. Since 1973 imports on oil to the United States have risen by two thirds. Almost half of the oil in the United States comes from OPEC producers in the Persian Gulf like Iraq. Nearly 80 percent of all proven oil reserves lie in OPEC countries.
Why does the United States consume so much oil? There are 1,003,740,211 more people in China than in the United States. China has a population of over 1,284,303,700 people but it is third in oil consumption whereas the United States ranks first in oil consumption with a population of only 280,563,489 people.
Because the United States is ranked number one in energy consumption, oil is a big part of our economy. This poses a problem. Because oil is a non-renewable resource, the world cannot depend on it forever. When the oil reserves run dry, we will be left without energy. So what next?
There are large non-petroleum deposits of fossil fuels in the United States. This seems like a feasible solution to our dwindling energy supply, but the burning of these fossil fuels emits carbon dioxide, which poses a threat to the environment. The strong carbon dioxide emissions would continue the problem of global warming. The United States would be better off exploring renewable energy sources. Solar cells, wind turbines, and hydrogen fuel cells could replace oil.
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