Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

From The "It's Not About Oil" Files...

By Cernig



By a massive "co-incidence", it appears the cream of the US military is encamped on the richest oil reserves in the world, and negotiating a permanent protection racket with those it catapulted into ownership.

Iraq dramatically increased the official size of its oil reserves yesterday after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabia�s and be the largest in the world.



The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister told The Times that new exploration showed that his country has the world�s largest proven oil reserves, with as much as 350 billion barrels. The figure is triple the country�s present proven reserves and exceeds that of Saudi Arabia�s estimated 264 billion barrels of oil. Barham Salih said that the new estimate had been based on recent geological surveys and seismic data compiled by �reputable, international oil companies . . . This is a serious figure from credible sources.�



The Iraqi Government has yet to approve a national oil law that would allow foreign companies to invest. Mr Salih said that the delay was damaging Iraq�s ability to profit from oil output, robbing the country of potentially huge revenues. With oil selling for more than $125 dollars a barrel and demand rising, Mr Salih is frustrated that Iraq still struggles over the establishment of a regulatory framework. �There is a real debate in the Government and among political leaders about the type of oil management structures we should have. I am for liberalising this sector and allowing the private sector to come in to develop these vast resources.�



BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Total have been queuing for rights to exploit Iraqi reserves. Mr Salih confirmed that Iraq was negotiating the outlines of two-year deals with some of the companies. He was optimistic that a draft law could be approved in the near future.

Would anyone seriously like to argue that this wasn't already at least suspected by oil companies and Cheney's energy task force in early 2003? Or that it had no bearing on plans for long-term bases?



(hat tip - our inexhaustible researcher Kat)



Posted by at
Labels:

2 comments:

  1. andersonMay 21, 2008 at 3:26 PM

    Cernig,
    Oh yes, these untapped and highly suspected reserves have been on the radar for quite sometime. Even a year ago, I noted that al Anbar was being evaluated to have at least another 100 billion bbls. This made the business press, but escaped the notice of mainstream "news."

    ReplyDelete
  2. KatMay 22, 2008 at 8:53 AM

    >>BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Total have been queuing for rights to exploit Iraqi reserves. Mr Salih confirmed that Iraq was negotiating the outlines of two-year deals with some of the companies. He was optimistic that a draft law could be approved in the near future.
    There you go -- the real, yet still unspoken, definition of 'winning the war' in Iraq.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)