War for Oil?

I get so tired of the left always saying that Bush and his "cronies" are in this for the oil. So I was doing a little research on the topic and come upon this article written by: Charles A. Kohlhaas a former Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and has worked for, founded, managed, and consulted for major and independent companies in the INTERNATIONAL oil and gas industry. Here's a little exert.

"The new government will be expected to honor international commitments and contracts, particularly debt repayment. Iraq owes Russia about $8 billion. The United States has no taxing or fee-charging authority in Iraq. If the United States did, by brute force, impose a tax on Iraqi crude, it could not be an add-on to the market price at which crude is sold in the international market or no one would buy it. If that crude is taxed on the net to Iraq, it must be a fee taken from the Iraqi government share and could not be more than about $3 per barrel without imposing an intolerable burden on a country which the United States will be trying to stabilize economically and politically. The United States government currently pays about 4 percent for long-term (10-year) money; that corresponds to $4 billion per year for a 100-billion-dollar war. A $3-per-barrel tax will bring in about $2.4 billion per year; not enough even to pay the interest on the cost of the war.

But suppose American companies are given the contracts to operate the fields. The United States government can still only recoup cost by taxing the oil, or income thereon, produced by the U.S. companies. Russian and French companies have interests which would be honored for diplomatic reasons. A reasonable limit of about $3 per barrel still applies and in this case it would not be on all the oil but only on the part which American companies produce so the gain would be even less than in the case cited above. "

I found it to be an interesting read. Based on fact, written by someone who actually knows what he is talking about.

Read it all:http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Vol2Issue9/vol2issue9kohlhaas.html