Article

2008-09-22 Iraq

Iraq, Royal Dutch Shell to ink gas deal - Our blood, everyone elses gets oil

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-09-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [10328 views ] Top

#1 It's about natural gas (NG) currently either being flared off (burned at the site) or pumped back into oil wells in Iraq.
There are only 2 ways to sell this NG -- either pipe it or compress it as liquefied NG (LNG). At the moment Iraq is wasting 770 million cubic feet (MMCF) / day due to lack of domestic uses and inability to export it. Note that Iraq's immediate neighbors have little or no use for NG from anyone. The deal with Royal Dutch Shell is to provide the infrastructure to gather & compress NG to form LNG & to provide terminals for LNG ships to move the product.
To put this in perspective, for the year 2007, these are the USA figures for NG use:
23055596 MMCF consumed total
4607582 MMCF imported , of which
770812 MMCF imported as LNG (3.3% of all US consumption) The US lacks capacity to increase imports of LNG in any case, due to the small number of LNG receiving facilities in the US. See this PDF for background, from FERC.
Maybe if the USA had the ability to import a reasonable amount of Iraqi LNG, we might have some cause to complain about this deal. Of course, the usual domestic culprits are fighting tooth and nail to prevent any new LNG import facilities.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-09-22 01:09|| 2008-09-22 01:09|| Front Page Top

#2 There was a recent report on FOX w/r to the fact the only recent LNG terminal on the West coast is in Mexico (1 billion bucks & 3000 jobs). The coast states wouldn't let them build. Same as refineries. Jerks.

Posted by tipover 2008-09-22 01:39|| 2008-09-22 01:39|| Front Page Top

#3 You got it.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-09-22 02:37|| 2008-09-22 02:37|| Front Page Top

#4 According to some U.S.C.G. Inspectors I recently met there is an LNG receiving facility scheduled to open near Port Arthur shortly and another has received regulatory approval to begin construction.

Texas knows where its bread is buttered.

Posted by Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-09-22 02:47|| 2008-09-22 02:47|| Front Page Top

#5 At least that's a step in the right direction. We could use many more LNG facilities.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-09-22 02:50|| 2008-09-22 02:50|| Front Page Top

#6 First we have to get rid of the democrats.

Posted by lollypop 2008-09-22 08:43|| 2008-09-22 08:43|| Front Page Top

#7 We need to develop our domestic gas resource, esp. here in Alaska. An LNG terminal is a terrorist magnet, and we are trying to get off foreign energy imports, with the exception of Canada. Mexico? Somewhat unstable.

Posted by Alaska Paul back home 2008-09-22 11:21|| 2008-09-22 11:21|| Front Page Top

#8 Alaska has been exporting LNG to Japan for years due to lack of pipelines to & lack of LNG import facilities in the USA. So much for developing domestic NG resources, no good if you can't deliver it to the users.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-09-22 12:42|| 2008-09-22 12:42|| Front Page Top

#9 Shell is a British company .

"Our blood, everyone elses gets oil" seems a little incorrect.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2008-09-22 15:43|| 2008-09-22 15:43|| Front Page Top

#10 I thought it was Royal Dutch Shell. Are you sure you're not confusing it with BP, the largest extractor of Alaskan oil?

Posted by ed 2008-09-22 15:47|| 2008-09-22 15:47|| Front Page Top

#11 Ok, Dutch-Anglo:
Wikipedia: Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known simply as Shell, is a multinational oil company of Dutch and British origins. It is the second largest private sector energy corporation in the world, and one of the six "supermajors" (vertically integrated private sector oil exploration, natural gas, and petroleum product marketing companies). The company's headquarters are in The Hague, Netherlands, with its registered office in London (Shell Centre).

Posted by ed 2008-09-22 15:49|| 2008-09-22 15:49|| Front Page Top

#12 Pebbles, taht was the point. Our blood and the Dutch get the contract. Our Blood and the Chicoms sign a multi-billion deal. etc. etc.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-09-22 17:21|| 2008-09-22 17:21|| Front Page Top

#13 It's Dutch-British.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2008-09-22 18:43|| 2008-09-22 18:43|| Front Page Top

#14 We sacrificed to rid ourselves of Saddam, to preclude WMD use against us, and (later) to run jihadis through the meat grinder and bring stability to Iraq. The lefties said it was all about oil and we said no, it wasn't. So don't tell me now that it was all about oil and we were cheated out of our share. If Iraq is to be free, they are free to take offers from whomever they choose.

If you want oil for blood, attack Saudi Arabia (Remember 9/11!), decimate the population, and make it our 51st state.

Posted by Darrell 2008-09-22 19:15|| 2008-09-22 19:15|| Front Page Top

#15 We were never big customers of Iraq's oil anyway, and if they sell to others, that frees up more for us from other sources. If the development contracts go to non-American companies, the American ones can concentrate on developing oil fields in the U.S. Recall, Saddam Hussein went after Kuwait so that he could from there conquer Saudi Arabia and corner the majority of the world's oil supply, thus controlling the world. So from his perspective the war was indeed about oil.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-09-22 19:37|| 2008-09-22 19:37|| Front Page Top

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