IRAQ

What influence has oil and politics has on Iraq?

Iraq is an example of the phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Iraq looks like a rundown state, which it is, but it is sitting on a gold mine. Iraq is apart and a huge player of the world oil industry with its history of power, national rivalry and military force.
For more than a 100 years, major powers have battled to control this enormous source of wealth and strategic power. Iraq’s oil is very plentiful; reserves in 2002 were listed at 112.5 billion barrels about 11% of the world total (Paul, 1). Iraq is the second largest producer of oil coming second to Saudi Arabia. Iraq produces 2.5 million barrels of oil a day and exporting about 2 million of these barrels (Baker, 1). Iraq’s oil is especially attractive to the big international oil companies because of three factors: high quality/high value product, huge supplies and it has exceptionally low production costs yielding a high barrel profit (Paul,...