Iraq's Oil

Not everything's going bad for the Bush cartel in Iraq. While the neo-con brain trust supplied the ideological fuel for the invasion, the real honchos in the conservative coalition have taken over a more important chore -- collecting the money.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips (COP), the No. 3 U.S. oil company, on Wednesday reported quarterly profit surged 89 percent, surpassing Wall Street forecasts, driven by record oil prices and sharply higher refining margins.

ConocoPhillips, like other major oil companies, has reaped a windfall from soaring crude oil prices -- which touched a record $70 a barrel in the quarter -- and better refining margins, as powerful hurricanes blew through the Gulf of Mexico, severely disrupting energy operations.

The Houston company's net profit in the third quarter rose to $3.8 billion, or $2.68 a share, compared with $2.01 billion, or $1.43 a share, a year earlier.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday posted a quarterly profit of $9.9 billion, the largest in U.S. corporate history, as it raked in a bonanza from soaring oil and gas prices...
...The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income jumped to $9.92 billion, or $1.58 a share, from $5.68 billion, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier.

In other words, while the price of gas soared so did oil company profits. Those profits have nothing to do with Iraq, you say? Read Greg Palast's investigative report detailing how OPEC and Big Oil have benefited from the U.S. takeover of Iraqi oil.

The bottom line is that more oil reserves in the hands of fewer people means higher prices. Without a president willing to put a stop to the inevitable price gouging, OPEC and Big Oil reap exhorbitant profits while American citizens pay the tab -- both in taxes and at the pump.