Saudi Arabia has long been a key supplier of crude to the US, holding the top slot through most of the 1990s until increasing volumes from Canada relegated the kingdom into second and sometimes third place.
But while Saudi Arabia has remained among the top five suppliers to the US, its exports have fallen dramatically this year, and it's not entirely clear why.
Driving back from Sharjah the other night, it was eerily dark as we drove through the so-called industrial area. "Do we pass the mad house?" asked a fellow passenger as we tried to maneuver around the unfamiliar streets of this UAE emirate. "What mad house?" screeched another passenger as the black car rumbled past a deserted palace, where rumor has it the chairs do jigs on the ceiling and things often go bump in the night in a building that is permanently dark.
.... The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Bush administration, and some very big international oil companies, including Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BHP Billiton and Total.
Shell, while it is negotiating a services contract to increase production from the giant Kirkuk oil field in northern Iraq, is also negotiating jointly with Australia's BHP for the development of the Missan oilfield in the south.
Chevron and Total jointly are negotiating the giant West Qurna Stage One oilfield development, also in southern Iraq.
About 200 protesters gathered outside the American Petroleum Institute headquarters in Washington Wednesday, March 19, some carrying signs reading "No Blood for Oil."
Wednesday was the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Close to 4,000 US troops have been killed, more than 29,000 wounded, and tens of thousand Iraqi civilians have been killed. [Four US soldiers were killed March 23, bringing the total to 4,000]. The Pentagon says the direct financial cost of military operations thus far is $600 billion. Other estimates put the ultimate cost of the war at $2 trillion or more. Among the many self-serving calculations by administration officials was former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's estimate that the war would cost the US $50-60 billion.
It's a month-by-month bit of good news, albeit in small increments. But Iraqi production continues to move upward at a steady pace.
As Platts reported January 7, Iraqi oil production hit a nearly four-year high in December as average output reached 2.475 million b/d, up 73,000 b/d over November. Supply from both northern and southern fields rose. The figures came from the country's oil ministry.
I couldn't really believe my eyes the other day. But there it was in my inbox. The latest in a string of news releases that I get each day from the public affairs office of the multinational forces in Baghdad. This one was entitled, somewhat intriguingly, thus: "It's all happening at the Zoo."
'Wow', I thought. Amidst all the mayhem in that benighted country, someone has a sense of humor.
One of the many miscalculations made by the Bush administration in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq was that revenues from Iraqi oil production would help foot the bill, including, and most prominently, for post-war reconstruction.
Currently, Iraqi production limping along at about 2-million barrels/day, far below potential capacity; the industry is beset by significant infrastructure problems and sabotage; and parliament is unable to reach an agreement on a legal framework intended to ensure the equitable distribution of the oil wealth to all parts of Iraq.
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