ERBIL, Iraq,
Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. military
withdrawal from Iraq is likely to
exacerbate a potentially dangerous
conflict between the Baghdad government
and the semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave in the north over oil
rights.
The dispute is
made all the more critical since the
minority Kurds, whose ultimate aim, though
not publicly stated, is an independent state
anchored on oil reserves, are
sitting on what energy industry experts
say are vast
untapped oil fields.
Northern Iraq
contains around one-third of the country's
reserves of 143.1 billion barrels of oil.
The Kurds say
the region run by the Kurdistan Regional
Government, which covers three of Iraq's
18 provinces, could contain as much as 45
billion barrels.
This, says the
Middle East Economic Digest, along with "the fact that Kurdish
politicians are effectively kingmakers in Baghdad
… is making Erbil more powerful."
The Kurdish
region, badly neglected during the rule of
Saddam Hussein, is locked a long-running
dispute with the federal government in
Baghdad over oil contracts the KRG has signed with 20
foreign oil companies since 2006.
But Baghdad
doesn't recognize the contracts and, since
Iraq's fractious Parliament is unable to
agree on a
badly needed hydrocarbon law
to regulate national energy resources and
revenue-sharing, that's unlikely to change
in the near future.
The Kurds
oppose the current draft because it would
give Baghdad greater control over Kurdish
oil.
In September,
the Kurds halted oil exports totaling some
160,000 barrels per day via the pipeline
from the Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's
Ceyhan terminal on the Mediterranean,
apparently seeking to pressure Baghdad to
review its position on the proposed oil
law.
That didn't
work, since the Shiite-dominated
government in Baghdad can easily make up
the shortfall by boosting production in
the Rumaila mega-field in the south.
In the
meantime, the KRG continues to pursue its
own ambitious -- and independent -- energy
program, even though the new oil law, if
it ever makes it to the statute book,
would restrict this.
"In the space
of four years we've increased production
from a standing start to about 200,000
barrels per day by the end of this year,"
Saad Sadollah, commercial adviser at the
KRG's Ministry of Natural Resources, said
earlier this month.
The Erbil
administration plans to raise that to 1
million bpd by the end of 2015, as well as
expand its infrastructure.
"Major international
companies are becoming interested in the
development of Kurdistan's oil reserves
and this is testament to the fact that
we're pursuing an economically and legally
viable way of developing those reserves,"
KRG Prime Minister Barham Salih told MEED.
But the most
inflammatory issue in the dispute between
Erbil and Baghdad is the city of Kirkuk
and its oil fields.
The Kurds claim
these are historically part of Kurdistan,
which Saddam Hussein sought to Arabize as
part of his effort to crush a long-running
Kurdish rebellion, forcibly expelling
Kurdish inhabitants and replacing them
with Arabs.
Baghdad refuses
to relinquish Kirkuk or the oil fields,
which the Kurds want to provide the
economic base of the independent
homeland they've dreamed
of for decades.
A referendum to
decide Kirkuk's future was scheduled for
2007 but it has yet to be conducted
because of fears it would trigger
bloodshed.
Tension remains
high there. Government forces and Kurdish
fighters face each other along the
boundaries between Kurdistan and Arab
regions.
There were
occasional clashes but the presence of
U.S. troops in Iraq prevented large-scale
fighting. Now those troops are being
withdrawn under the U.S. pullout scheduled
to end Dec. 31.
Frustrated by
delays over the oil law, the KRG is
driving to attract more foreign oil
companies despite Baghdad's bitter
opposition.
In the final
analysis, the dispute between Baghdad and
Erbil has wider ramifications that don't
auger well.
Two-thirds of
Iraq's known oil reserves lie in the
south, where there have been rumblings for
autonomy among the Shiite majority.
Although that
seems to be on hold for the time being, if
the southerners feel hard done by over the
oil law that could change. They could even
decide to pump their oil eastward through
neighboring Shiite Iran.
And in Anbar
province in western Iraq, which has a
large Sunni population and where a new oil
field was recently discovered, there have
been calls for greater regional control of
resources.
In
a nutshell, it's Sunni verses Shiite.
The Shiite majority,
roughly 60 percent of Iraq's population,
and the Sunnis and Kurds, each about 20
percent of the population. (The Kurds,
who dominate northern Iraq, are
themselves Sunni Muslim but have little
in common with the Arab Sunnis, who ran
Iraq under Saddam Hussein and are
usually referred to only as Sunnis.)
Daniel
11, also referred to the AntMessiah
as the king of the North. The king
of the North and the land of
the North is what Jeremiah called
the territory of the Assyria and
Babylon.
The
Assyrian Empire was conquered by the
Babylonians in 626 B.C. Both the
Assyrian capital of Asshur and the
Babylonian capital of Babylon were
located in present day Iraq.
These empires
essentially comprised the same territory
which included present day Turkey,
Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan,
Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Present
Day Middle Eastern Countries.
In Ezekiel 38 and
39 the Antichrist’s two campaigns
against Israel are interwoven in the
prophecy. Included are details of the
Antichrist and his armies coming against
Israel at the beginning of the Great
Tribulation. The prophecy also describes
the Antichrist and his armies coming
against Jerusalem at the end of the age.
Ezekiel refers to
the Antichrist as Gog, the chief
prince, from the land of Magog.
The ancient land of Magog included some
of the territory represented by present
day Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Georgia,
Armenia, Azerbajan, and Russia near the
Black Sea.
What sets the stage for major
change in Iraq?
The Burden of Damascus
Isaiah 17's annihilation
In my post "The False Prophet
Precedes Prince Charles" May 2011
I wrote:
I think
P.Charles will go for the EU mideast
envoy position thats been vacant. Why?
Because
the Prophet Daniel calls him a
little horn.
Daniel
7:8
I
considered the horns, and, behold,
there came up among them another little
horn, before whom there were three
of the first horns plucked up by the
roots: and, behold, in this horn were
eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth
speaking great things.
The
EU body that I think P.Charles
fulfills his role in Daniel 7:verse 8,
is called the
European External Action Service.
The
diplomatic service, responsible for
implementing the EU's foreign policy
and crisis management
missions.
What crisis
would that be in the Middle east?
A
Psalms 83 War, Isaiah 17
War, that has just seen Damascus Syria
destroyed.
The
same war that King Abdullah II of
Jordan(False Prophet) is warning
of right now.
A further read on the
Assyrian takes us to what the Prophet
Micah
warned:
Micah
5:5
5.) And this man shall be the
peace, when the Assyrian shall come into
our land: and when he shall tread in our
palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and
eight principal men.
Why the two
different numbers, seven shepherds, eight
principle men?
Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday canceled a
scheduled meeting of the most senior
cabinet ministers. The meeting involving
Netanyahu's inner cabinet, known as the 'Forum of Seven.' -August 30
2010
Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu convened the inner cabinet of eight
ministers on Tuesday evening
-September 28, 2011
Micah 5:6
6.) And they shall waste the land of
Assyria with the sword, and the land of
Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus
shall he deliver us from the Assyrian,
when he cometh into our land, and when he
treadeth within our borders.
E.U. Poised to
Overtake U.S. as Biggest Oil Importer
November 9, 2011
London— The European
Union
is expected to overtake the United
States as the world’s biggest oil importer in 2015, the
International Energy Agency said
Wednesday in its annual report.
Oil imports to the
United States are expected to decline
significantly over the coming years
because of new efficiency standards
for cars and trucks and an increase in
domestic oil and natural gas
production, said Fatih Birol, chief
economist of the agency.
By 2020, China should
overtake the European Union to become
the world’s biggest importer of oil,
according to the Paris-based agency,
which acts as a policy adviser to
governments.
“The U.S. would be less
and less vulnerable to oil price
shocks,” Mr. Birol said at a news
conference in London. “But increasing
reliance on oil imports elsewhere
heightens concerns about the cost of
imports and supply security.”
The average crude oil
import price is expected to reach $120
a barrel in 2035 based on last year’s
dollar value, the report titled World
Energy Outlook 2011 predicted. Demand
for oil should ease in the short term
because of slower economic growth
worldwide and supply should recover as
Libyan production picks up again, the
agency said, but the oil price will
continue to rise in the long term
because of growing demand from China
and India.
Oil-importing
nations will increasingly rely on a
small number of producing nations,
the agency said. Oil production is
expected to grow mainly in Iraq, Saudi Arabia
and Brazil. More than 90 percent of
growth will come from the Middle
East and Africa, the agency
said.
Greater dependence on
oil imports in Asia, where demand is
rising because more people are buying
cars, could raise concerns about the
reliability of oil supply. Much of world oil
supplies are transported via
vulnerable routes in the Gulf, the
Malacca Straits (all the
earthquakes happening my
emphasis) and
elsewhere, the energy agency said.
The agency said it was
unclear whether production from the
Middle East and North Africa would
actually grow as expected because some
nations, including Libya, might find
it difficult to find the necessary
investment in exploration and
production.
“After the Arab Spring
there might be different priorities,”
Mr. Birol said. “If they were
investing a third less, then 2015 oil
prices may go up to $150 per barrel.”
Global oil demand is
expected to rise to 99 million barrels
a day in 2035 from 87 million barrels
a day last year, mainly because of a
growing transport sector in China and
other faster-growing economies, the
agency said.
The agency also urged
governments to agree soon on legally
binding limits on greenhouse gas
emissions so that investment in
clean-energy technologies can increase
by 2017, making it possible to meet
the goal of limiting the average rise
in global temperatures to two degrees
centigrade.
“We cannot afford to
delay further action to tackle climate
change,”
the agency said in the report. “For
every $1 of investment avoided in the
power sector before 2020, an
additional $4.30 would need to be
spent after 2020 to compensate for the
increased emissions.”
Look at the above quote:
"Oil production is expected to
grow mainly in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and
Brazil. More than 90 percent of growth
will come from the Middle East and
Africa."
Let's take 'em
region by region:
I've already pointed
out the Bible Prophecy pointing to Iraq's
lead in oil.
That leaves Saudi
Arabia and Brazil.
Brazil:
