Asymmetrical Information

“It is the price America pays for its inability to develop a policy to reduce its dependence on Saudi oil.”

--Irwin M. Stelzer

We should blame both the Democrats and the Republicans for this mess. The former keep us from drilling for oil in the so-called “pristine areas” of Alaska. Alas, Republicans should also feel ashamed of themselves for their hesitation to take to task people who buy impractical large vehicles. It is appalling that our auto manufacturers are designing cars to be more powerful instead of more fuel efficient. And yes, I have no hesitation in describing the typical Humvee driver as a selfish jerk. The are indeed ego-tripping yuppie ass holes. They deserve our contempt and derision.

Jane, Jane, you promised us an analysis of the proper way to structure the Iraqi oil industry!

I'm not demanding it. Just begging.

One question I'd be interested in the answer to would be; is it not going to slow things up a bit if the decision is taken to freeze TotalfinaElf (who have presumably done quite a bit of preparatory work already) out of the process for being French?

Crank,

Today's Wall Street Journal editorial by Susan Lee, "An Oil-for-the-People Program" is very good. It outlines the proposal of a group of economists (including Noble Prize winner Vernon Smith) for setting up a system whereby the oil industry would be privatized to the direct benefit of the Iraqi people. I would link to it but the Internet version is subscription only.

dsquared:

About as much as it will slow down civil rehabilitation by not allowing in Ba'athist party members.

There's reason to wonder if either is a good idea (not allowing any Ba'athist back in, not allowing the French back in), that must be balanced against post-war stability issues.

In the case of the French situation, however, there are plenty of non-French organizations that have plenty of familiarity with the basic science and engineering issues of oil wells and oil fields (including non-American corpos like BP and Shell), a situation not replicated regarding the Iraqi people.

>>are plenty of non-French organizations that have plenty of familiarity with the basic science and engineering issues of oil wells and oil fields

But the issue is not "basic science"; it's the specific geological knowledge of particular oilfields in Iraq which TotalfinaElf has and nobody else either already has or can get hold of in short time. I'm not so sure of the facts here, but would appreciate any information anyone has.

Who cares that TotalfinaElf may have more experience with the Iraq oil fields? The bottom line is that the French are scum bags who assisted Saddam Hussein in enslaving his people. Let us not forget that at least a third of the citizens of France desired the survival of this evil regime!

The French must be punished for their betrayal. I'm sure that the companies of the United States, Great Britain, and the other coalition partners will get up to speed in a very short period of time.

dsquared:

The oil wells were not damaged nor destroyed (unless something happened that escaped everyone's attention). This is one of the benefits of sending those troops out there as promptly as we did.

The pipelines are extant. The pumping stations, AFAIK, are still extant (and those are not unique to Iraq).

The only reason to use the French knowledge base would be if the oilheads had been destroyed and we needed to replace the oil wells. Even then, you're assuming that there is a level of knowledge that is unique to the French. Since the French role (AFAIK) was primarily one of helping to sell Iraqi oil (unless they were providing an awful lot of things that were banned under those UN sanctions), that is something that, I suspect, can be left to other, equally competent, authorities.

Don't forget about the trillions of barrels of oil we have here in Alberta! We can supply you with oil for a century or more. We're far easier to get along with than the other guys.

I've looked into the issue, and the special expertise of the French companies apparently relates to the development of new (albeit proven) oil fields rather than resuming pumping of existing production ...

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