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| US upgrades forecast for Iraq oil revenues in 2004 | |
| 2004-02-21 | |
| Iraqi oil exports should rake in 13.5 billion dollars this year, 1.5 billion dollars more than first thought, a top US Treasury Department official said Thursday. "The numbers that were estimated for total revenues for 2004 were about 12 billion (dollars) originally and now that is up another, about 1.5 billion," the undersecretary for international affairs John Taylor said. "So that is a 1.5 billion dollar increase in the total revenues that are being forecast from the oil in 2004," Taylor told reporters in a telephone conference call as he visited Baghdad. Last month, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office said Iraq's oil would likely bring in 12 billion dollars in 2004 and a total 69 billion dollars over 2004-2007 as the infrastructure was patched up. The CBO said the 69-billion-dollar figure was the most likely, but that revenues could be between 44 billion and 89 billion, depending on prices and other factors. But the CBO said the oil export revenue "will probably not be sufficient to cover all of the country's capital investment needs, at least in the short run." It added that if Iraq fails to get relief from international debts, "it may have trouble funding any rebuilding efforts." The CBO pointed out that international donors had pledged some 36 billion dollars in aid for Iraq, about half of which would come from US grants. Yet Iraq had debts, contractual claims and war reparation claims that could be anywhere from 45 billion to 400 billion dollars. Improving security in Iraq was critical for any economic improvement that could attract foreign investors, the CBO said.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #10 RC, way to go. So very cool. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-2-21 11:06:08 PM |
| #9 "I haven't heard any reports about sabotage of the oil infrastructure for a while." This is prolly due to two factors coming together: 1) Payoffs demanded by tribal leaders who "protect" (read: don't sabotage / allow sabotage) pipeline sections / refineries in their tribal area 2) Education provided these tribal leaders that we don't DO payoffs, per se, we expect asshats to care about their country There are prolly some (much less than originally demanded, I'm certain) funds being paid to go hand-in-hand with the threat that continued sabotage in a tribe's area would be ascribed to that tribe's leader... And that the frequency of sabotage and military night raids would be linked. Opinions / thoughts / snarkies, anyone? |
| Posted by: .com 2004-2-21 3:21:46 PM |
| #8 I haven't heard any reports about sabotage of the oil infrastructure for a while. Surprising. Maybe the security on the pipelines has increased, because I doubt the bad guys interest in sabotage has decreased. |
| Posted by: sludj 2004-2-21 1:35:02 PM |
| #7 What do I hear? The "back room boyz" have conspired to reclasify a new "burger flipping" job as a manufacturing job. (get it, manufacturing a burger). Hey, must be true, heard it on ABC news. (on the half hour) What?! The supposed real journalists have bought that one?! They must taste Kerry's blood in the water; maybe there are some more scandals in his closet? Here's what they're talking about; it's on par with the whole National Guard lie. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-2-21 1:11:10 PM |
| #6 reported identifying catsup as a vegetable for school lunch purposes Still no tomatoes and still no bong. It was a good bong, a bong of bongs. |
| Posted by: HalfEmpty 2004-2-21 8:13:36 AM |
| #5 A2U, what are you going to do? Remember when the Reagan admin was labeled as animals, near pigs, when they were reported identifying catsup as a vegetable for school lunch purposes. Everyboby knew the starving children needed real tomatoes. So segway 2004, starving chldren aside. What do I hear? The "back room boyz" have conspired to reclasify a new "burger flipping" job as a manufacturing job. (get it, manufacturing a burger). Hey, must be true, heard it on ABC news. (on the half hour) |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-2-21 2:21:08 AM |
| #4 You guys are going to love this: I visit the Independent's forum on prospero. Was "discussing" w/some clueless LLL moonbat why I don't care that H got a no-bid contract, what were the people of Iraq supposed to do while the bidding process went on and how we needed to get them up and running ASAP. His response - It wasn't important for them to get the oil wells repaired. |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-2-21 1:59:01 AM |
| #3 For every Iraqi barrel that ships thats one less barrell from.............. Are there Iraqi grown ups that could make it happen or is it just a big car swarm? |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-2-21 1:23:27 AM |
| #2 I think the debt issue is going to be resolved close to the lower number. Something about James Baker's briefcase makes me think that this will get fixed. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-2-21 12:38:27 AM |
| #1 Egg-cellent! |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-2-21 12:22:38 AM |