How much crude oil is Iraq actually exporting?
That's anyone's guess because four years into the US occupation, the contractors in charge of calibrating, fixing and replacing the meters on oil terminals, Halliburton and Parsons, still haven't done the job.
Can't be a security problem, because the terminals are under 24 hour high security guard, are more than 50 miles off-shore and accessible only by chopper or ship.
There are two possible explanations, writes Pratap Chatterjee in the latest edition of CorpWatch.
The projects have either been delayed by massive bureaucracy, or vested interests, like smugglers and corrupt officials, are benefitting from the lack of oil metering.
The Iraqi oil smuggling trade is booming, writes Chatterjee, making the country a big victim of a monster robbery of its oil production which is the heart of that country's economy.
It also echoes the revelations two years ago that $9 billion of Iraq's oil revenues had vanished without trace
And while we're on the subject of Iraq, you might also want to check this story in The Guardian about British companies accused of engaging in large-scale fraud in Iraq where they were paid millions for "phantom" armored vehicles destined to protect Iraqi government employees which were never delivered.
One company was headed by a former deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard and an ex-army officer
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