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 Posted April 23rd, 2005 at 4:22PM
…Although Saudi Arabia possesses larger reserves, it is now producing oil at close to its maximum sustainable rate (about 10 million barrels per day). It will probably be unable to raise its output significantly over the next 20 years while global demand, pushed by significantly higher consumption in the United States, China, and India, is expected to rise by 50%. Iran, on the other hand, has considerable growth potential: it is now producing about 4 million barrels per day, but is thought to be capable of boosting its output by another 3 million barrels or so. Few, if any, other countries possess this potential, so Iran’s importance as a producer, already significant, is bound to grow in the years ahead.
And it is not just oil that Iran possesses in great abundance, but also natural gas. According to Oil and Gas Journal, Iran has an estimated 940 trillion cubic feet of gas, or approximately 16% of total world reserves. (Only Russia, with 1,680 trillion cubic feet, has a larger supply.) As it takes approximately 6,000 cubic feet of gas to equal the energy content of 1 barrel of oil, Iran’s gas reserves represent the equivalent of about 155 billion barrels of oil. This, in turn, means that its combined hydrocarbon reserves are the equivalent of some 280 billion barrels of oil, just slightly behind Saudi Arabia’s combined supply. At present, Iran is producing only a small share of its gas reserves, about 2.7 trillion cubic feet per year. This means that Iran is one of the few countries capable of supplying much larger amounts of natural gas in the future…
Excerpt from Michael T. Klare article Oil, Geopolitics, and the Coming War with Iran via TomDispatch.com
Posted February 3rd, 2005 at 5:48PM
Then.
U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote:
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror
by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam’s presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.
…
The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government.
Now.
The IECI clarified an earlier estimate of a 72 percent turnout, saying that the “figures are only very rough, word-of-mouth estimates gathered informally from the field.”
If truth is the first casualty of war, reliable numbers must be the first casualty of an occupation-controlled election. The second layer of spin has been designed to convince us that an overwhelming majority of Iraqis participated. The initial claim of 72% having voted was quickly downgraded to 57% of those registered to vote. So what percentage of the adult population is registered to vote? The Iraqi ambassador in London was unable to enlighten me. In fact, as UN sources confirm, there has been no registration or published list of electors – all we are told is that about 14 million people were entitled to vote.
As for Iraqis abroad, the up to 4 million strong exiled community (with perhaps a little over 2 million entitled to vote) produced a 280,000 registration figure. Of those, 265,000 actually voted.
“DEBKAfile’s Iraq experts reveal that, while the turnout is officially estimated at 60%, the real figure will probably turn out to be quite a bit lower, no more than 40-45% … In Basra, Iraq’s second largest town, the turnout was 32-35%, although Iraqi election officials claimed 90%.”
Posted January 21st, 2005 at 9:55AM
The talk of possible military action against Iran in just the last couple of days has been mindblowing. There was Seymour Hersh’s article detailing covert operations already occuring in Iran. While the Pentagon quickly denounced his article, there has been hawkish rhetoric coming simultaneously from Bush, Cheney and new Secretary of State Rice. To think that even a bombing campaign of Iran is a possibility in the second Bush term, let alone something more extensive is truly a frightening prospect. Where will this manpower come from? The overstretched US military? Or Israel? At the moment it looks like Britian would not be on board any sort of military action against Iran.
At 10×10, Iran is currently sitting at #44.
ElectronicIran.net – might prove useful, let’s hope not.
In other news, as a quick sideline – the US military is beginning to pull out of the relief efforts in Asia.
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