NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Iraq's oil production could rise as much as 50 percent from 2002 levels by the end of the year if the country is given outside help in restoring its fields' capacity to pump crude, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Wednesday.
Cheney, speaking to a meeting of U.S. newspaper editors, made his remarks in response to a question about Iraq's oil capability. He said production could hit 2.5 million to 3 million barrels per day by the end of this year.
Last year, Iraq was producing about 2 million barrels of oil per day, down from a high of about 3 million barrels in 1988, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Even though the country will need outside help, Cheney said Iraqis will have to "make decisions on how much they want to reinvest" in their oil sector.
The country controls more than 112 billion barrels of oil, second only to Saudi Arabia in proven reserves.
Sketching out a postwar scenario now that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appears to have lost power, Cheney, a former oil company executive, spoke of "an organization to oversee the functioning of their oil ministry."
That body, he said, "will be composed primarily of Iraqis*. It may have international advisers from outside."
Revenues from the oil sales, Cheney said, "will then flow to the Iraqi government," which he said will provide a "resource base" to rebuild the country.
But he added that the United States was prepared to provide help.
*Oversight of the oil ministry will be led by Iraqis named Ahmed Chalabi, if his carefully-stoked post-9/11 relationship with Dick Cheney bears any fruit.
"International advisers from outside" could include, oh, I don't know, Halliburton maybe. What do you think?
