Word: bbl
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...because the Bush Administration is up against a prevailing world view that the burden of proof is on the U.S. to show that it won't exploit Iraq's underground riches. Hours after the invasion began, U.S. forces had seized two offshore terminals that can transfer 2 million bbl. daily to tankers. They secured the southern Rumaila oil field so swiftly that Saddam Hussein's retreating troops managed to set only nine wells ablaze, compared with 650 Kuwaiti wells during Gulf War I, and U.S. airborne troops took the northern oil fields at Kirkuk largely intact...
...producer, but no other country can do it as cheaply. That's because, for geological reasons, Iraq boasts the world's most prolific wells. In 1979, the year before Iraq's oil fields were devastated by the first of three wars, its wells produced an average of 13,700 bbl. each per day. By contrast, each Saudi well averaged 10,200 bbl. U.S. wells, which are gradually drying up, averaged just 17 bbl. It would take more than 800 U.S. wells to pump as much oil as a typical Iraqi well. Consequently, production costs in Iraq are much lower...
Before the U.S. invasion, so resolutely opposed by President Vladimir Putin, the Russians had signed contracts to develop new fields in Iraq and produce an additional 710,000 bbl. a day. Whether a new U.S.-sanctioned Iraqi government will honor those contracts remains to be seen. But beyond gaining access to Iraq's oil fields, the Russians have little interest in seeing Iraq become a major producer on the scale of Saudi Arabia. That's because Russia is a major exporter itself, earning billions in oil revenue. Though Russia might ultimately open its spigots wider than Saudi Arabia's, which...
...would think that the world's largest oil producer would be financially secure no matter what the competition. But one would be wrong. In 2000, Saudi wells produced 8.1 million bbl. of crude oil a day; the country's high-quality Arabian light sold for an average $26.81 per bbl. That was enough to put the kingdom in the black, a rare achievement. In 16 of the past 17 years, the Saudi government operated at a deficit as its oil revenue failed to keep pace with its spending. As a result, the country that everyone thinks is synonymous with wealth...
Like Russia, China signed contracts with Saddam's government to produce oil, in China's case 90,000 bbl. a day. But unlike Russia, China needs all that oil, and much more, for its own growth. For many years, it was believed that China would be self-sufficient in oil. But that doesn't seem likely. China is already importing 2 million bbl. daily and is on its way to becoming the second largest importer after the U.S. China needs a new major producer to emerge...