Iraq Faces an Oil Shortage
Posted on August 18, 2006
Yes, you read that headline correctly. Iraq -- which is sitting on a sea of oil -- is now having to import oil. It's also undergoing the worst oil shortage the country has ever seen. And why would that be, you might ask? Well, it's because the botched Iraq War has now segued right into the Iraq Civil War of 2006. It's all playing out just like Bush, Sr. told Bush, Jr. that it would happen if Jr. invaded Iraq. Not that Jr. ever listens to his Daddy, of course. Or to any of Daddy's friends who pre-invasion went on every tv show they could find to say how the war would be a very bad idea.
Iraqi officials announced plans to double the amount of money spent to import fuel to combat the country's worst oil and gasoline shortages in years. Much of the fuel crisis is due to insurgent attacks on convoys and on Iraq's fragile pipeline network, Oil Ministry officials said.The moral of this story is: Father Knew Best.*****
Another car bomb missed an Iraqi police patrol in the Mansour district of western Baghdad but killed three bystanders and wounded a fourth, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.
The Baghdad bombings occurred in areas of the city not yet targeted in a new U.S.-led security crackdown, which began this month with the arrival of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements. Those troops will try to quell Sunni-Shiite violence that has brought the country to the brink of civil war. The operation has focused on four Baghdad neighborhoods -- three mostly Sunni areas and one that is predominantly Shiite. U.S. and Iraqi troops plan to expand to other parts of the city in a campaign to restore order neighborhood by neighborhood. The interior minister announced a partial curfew in unspecified Baghdad neighborhoods this weekend.
The spike in violence has dealt a devastating blow to fuel supplies because of attacks on convoys and Iraq's pipeline system. Gasoline and other petroleum products are in short supply in Baghdad, adding to the suffering of Iraqis weary of killings, kidnappings and soaring crime. A gallon of gasoline now sells on the black market in Baghdad for about $4.92, although the official price is 64 cents a gallon. Lines of cars at many Baghdad fuel stations stretch for several miles, and drivers sometime wait overnight to fill up their cars. Iraq's three main oil refineries -- Dora, Beiji and Shuaiba -- are working at half capacity, processing only 350,000 barrels per day compared to 700,000 barrels a day before the war.