Shell says ready to help Iraq boost oil output (click here)
WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) is ready to help Iraq boost oil production once that country's government finalizes a petroleum law covering big energy projects, the head of the oil giant said on Tuesday.
"We are very much prepared to go back to Iraq," Shell chief executive officer Jeroen van der Veer said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
But first, he said, Shell employees must be able to work safely in the country and a petroleum law must be passed.
"You have to know the rules of the game because you have to bring a lot of money to the country (to develop its oil)," he said. "We expect that the petroleum law, we hope that it is finally passed...during this year."
The law would provide conditions for investment and international participation in Iraq's oil and gas industry.
Iraq holds the world's third biggest oil reserves at 115 billion barrels and has some of the cheapest extraction costs, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Increasing Iraq's oil production to take advantage of high crude prices is seen as key to rebuilding the country's economy.
Iraq's oil output averages almost 2.3 million barrels a day, but with enough investment, the country holds enough crude to double its production, according to some estimates. (Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by David Gregorio)
The Bush Betrayal (click at title to entry)
Posted by mollypitcher , April 01, 2008 12:40AM
The Bush BetrayalPosted by Molly Sword McDonough
April 1, 2008
The President of the United States has two inviolable responsibilities, and those are to protect the lives of the people of the USA, and to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
It is with great sadness, anger and disappointment that we have all had to acknowledge that George W. Bush has betrayed those values.
The Bush/ Cheney Administration has put the lives of Americans in danger, and has put the Constitution of the United States in jeopardy, in so many ways it is simply unfathomable. This administration, which I once believed in with my whole heart, has betrayed us all....
