[antimedia] antimedia: The Iraqis recently agreed....

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Posted by antimedia:
The Iraqis recently agreed....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1172631166.shtml


   ....on a distribution of oil income that should benefit [1]the whole
   country and go a long way toward ameliorating the concerns of Sunni
   Iraqis that they would be left with no source of income in the new
   government.

     The minority Sunni Arabs, who ruled Iraq for decades before the
     toppling of Saddam Hussein and are now leading the insurgency, have
     chafed at rule by the Shiites and Kurds partly because they fear
     that those two groups might hoard oil wealth for themselves. Sunni
     Arab leaders have resisted attempts by the Kurds and some Shiite
     politicians to create laws allowing for greater regional autonomy.
     The draft law says that all revenues from current and future oil
     fields will be collected by the central government and
     redistributed to regional or provincial governments by population,
     in theory ensuring an equitable distribution of profits. That
     method could help assuage Sunni Arabs hostile to Kurdish and Shiite
     autonomy.
     The attitudes of Sunni Arabs could also soften if more oil
     exploration is done on their land. Iraqi officials recently
     increased their estimates of the amount of oil and natural gas
     deposits in Sunni Arab territory after paying tens of millions of
     dollars to foreign oil companies to re-examine old seismic data
     across the country and retrain Iraqi petroleum engineers.
     Industry and government analysts in and outside Iraq estimate the
     proven oil reserves at 115 billion barrels. Oil production peaked
     at 3.7 million barrels a day in 1979, according to the United
     States Department of Energy. Production stood at 2.6 million
     barrels a day before the 2003 invasion, but has dropped since.

   With the [2]security push ongoing in Baghdad, the Iranians backing off
   from [3]supplying weapons to the "insurgents" and Sadr [4]slinking out
   of the country with his tail between his legs, the prospects for a
   positive outcome in the next few months are greater than they have
   been in quite some time.

References

   1. http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=1643
   2. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2007/02/bombs-strike-again-but-hope-remains.html
   3. http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/02/evidence_of_irans_war_against.php
   4. http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN1324356720070214