You would think that the Internet would make investigative journalism much easier. The difficulty isn’t getting the information it’s substantiating it. So it was pleasant to find that one of the best resources for conspiracy on the Internet is the United States own ‘energy.gov’. The site is there to give the public as much information as it can about American energy supplies and usage. When it comes to access to information the US government is arguably the most open there is.

Energy.gov really gives the conspiracy hack everything they could want laid out in easy to understand spreadsheets, downloadable documents and wonderful authoritative quotes. As if that wasn’t enough for the troughing journo at the bottom of every section is an email contact fax and telephone number of the person who prepared the content. Armed with these kind of hard facts why trawl the etherworld of anti-American newsgroups to figure the hidden meanings of US policy when you can have much more credible fun with rock solid quotable sources. So lets go play.

Ask not what America can do for Afghanistan but what Afghanistan can do for them. Energy.gov has a section called country analysis that offers extensive information on how it sees the resources and development of that country from a US perspective. For Afghanistan we have to accept that the stats are a bit dated – last updated September 2001. Before or after the 11th? Who knows? Believe it or not we Journo’s have a code of practice about fibbing so with all these facts, why speculate?

So for enthusiasts of conspiracy theory we manage to snout up a lovely truffle of quotable fact. Unocal, a Californian company in cohorts with Saudi Arabia had a big fat pipeline planned to suck resources from the Caspian region across Afghanistan. Logistics and economics were very tricky what with the Taliban, civil war and so on. Nevertheless it carried on with its plans until Bill Clinton upset things by bombing Iraq in 1998 over the USS Cole incident. Quote from energy.gov ‘Unocal had previously stressed that the Centgas pipeline project would not proceed until an internationally recognized government was in place in Afghanistan’. It’s good to know that all these plans are back in action. Incidentally the interim President of Afghanistan, Hamad Karzai, was an advisor to the Centgas project in the 1990’s so its no surprise that he has lent his support to the re-vitalised project. Ok so I stepped outside the government website to get the bit about Karzai the Oil consultant but phone Unocal in California to get them to officially deny it. So far the art of investigative journalism is alive and well and hasn’t left my spare room.

Iraq is ready to deal with U.S. oil companies.

Is it a shock to realise that America trades with the enemy? A direct quote for Iraq country analysis:

In September 1999, more than 50 foreign companies attended an oil and gas technology exhibition in Baghdad, the first such gathering in 10 years. Most of the firms were from Canada, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. No U.S. firms attended, although a high-level Iraqi oil official has stated that Iraq is ready to deal with U.S. oil companies.

So with that kind of invite it was only a couple of months before Iraq signed multi-billion dollar deals with China, France and Russia. According to energy.gov others, including several U.S. firms, also reportedly have held discussions.

It’s quite difficult to read any document on the site about the future of oil production and consumption without reading something about Iraq. Does it mean anything that energy.gov commits as much column inches to its arch-enemy as it does to its own countries resources?

Some of us know that America guzzles lots of fuel, over 25 per cent of the world’s consumption. The biggest myths are distortions of what they have, what they need and significantly where they get it. For example energy.gov see America as ‘Iraq’s largest export customer’. After reading the Iraq Country Analysis it becomes apparent that America, along with many other countries, covets Iraqi oil.

There are lies damn lies and statistics, the trouble with the latter is it is the most difficult to get across. In a crude (sic) summary we know from the US Department of Energy that, slightly rounded, America uses twenty million barrels a day and produces six million. So, if it doesn’t want to deplete its own resources – dangerous in current times – it must buy more from abroad. America gets over half of what it uses from imports. Almost a quarter of this from Persian Gulf nations alone. (Six per cent from Iraq).

The Persian Gulf nations are a great market to buy oil so lets forget mass-destruction and talk mass-production. Taking a trip to the OPEC pages of Energy.gov we get a breakdown on who can produce what. OPEC is a network of countries that export oil for money. They have far more than they can consume so sell the excess (we all knew that, right?) The top supplier is Saudi Arabia with a production capability so great it alone could make up Americas shortfall – you don’t want to upset these guys. Next is Iran who produce about half as much -roughly the same as Iraq. If Iraq wasn’t hindered by sanctions and the like it could boost that capability significantly. Nevertheless in its current war battered state it could still provide America with nearly a quarter of what it needs. US energy department anticipates with decent technology and infrastructure that figure could double.

So who have the largest oil reserves according to energy.gov? Saudi Arabia can get their hands on 264 Billion Barrels, getting on for forty years in US consumption terms. The number two-oil stash in the world is – no drum roll needed –Iraq. They have enough ‘ready to go’ oil to keep the US lubricated for fifteen years. Contrary to some belief, the United States Strategic Reserve accounts for less than six hundred million barrels or about a month’s consumption stashed away in salt caverns. Their own proven reserves have declined by about twenty per cent since 1990.

If America relied only on its own fuel reserve, how long does it have? Only three years. Armed with these facts you do not need a conspiracy website. When the US says Saddam Hussein is a threat to the western way of life you can bet your SUV he is. Only because of what America has done to him. In spite of everything Iraq will trade with America. If oil is a narcotic and Saddam Hussein a dealer the last thing he wants is to kill his favourite addict. The financial success of the Middle East relies greatly on western consumption without it they are nothing.

We have learned from one government website that America needs Iraqi Oil. That Iraq wants to sell it to them too. If this happened in a reliable way all the personal and cultural differences would account for nothing. They can carry on being barbaric to their own people and America won’t care, like it never used to care until Iraq started punching holes in their fuel line.

United States current consumption of Iraqi oil is more than it was in 1990. This usage is increasing on a very steep curve. The energy demands of America cannot wait for the Afghan pipeline to become operational and boost the supply from US owned Caspian oilfields. It has a flashing red light on it’s fuel tank and would rather refill now than worry if it has enough to make it to the next gas station. Don’t take my word for it, log on to energy.gov.