The Iraqi people, who could have been among the richest in the world in normal circumstances with their natural gift, were paradoxically living in poverty, misery and despair.

Iraq is dubbed "an isle sitting over a lake of oil." The confirmed reserves stand at more than 112 billion barrels, second only after Saudi Arabia in the world.

Some estimates even put Iraq's total reserves at more than 300 billion barrels.

What makes Iraq's oil reserves more attractive for a big industrial country like the United States, which alone consumes almost a quarter of the world's total annual oil output, is the fact that Iraq's per barrel production cost is among the lowest.

Take the Baba Kurkur oil well in Kirkut for example, 370 kilometres north of Baghdad, oil gushes at a daily output of 100,000 barrels without any need to inject water or gas to increase the pressure.

Such favorable output conditions make the cost for each barrel of crude oil in Iraq lower than US$1, compared with US$6 in Iraq's southern neighbour Saudi Arabia and US$15 in the North Sea oil fields.

Iraq has 75 oil fields throughout the country. Yet hammered by three wars in 23 years and after more than a decade of the United Nations (UN) sanctions, only 15 of them are partially exploited.

The under-production is also attributed to insufficient funding and a lack of advanced technology.

The untapped Majnoon oil field near Ammarh, 380 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, has an estimated reserve of more than 30 billion barrels.

Iraq started oil production as early as the 1930s, exporting its oil through a number of outlets, including ports on the Gulf and the Mediterranean linked by an extensive network of pipelines.

The 700-kilometre Iraqi-Saudi pipeline connecting Iraq's oil fields in the south with a small Saudi port on the Red Sea, which has a capacity of ducting 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), was never put to use for almost 13 years for the sake of political divergences between the two countries.

Iraq also has its own deep sea port in the Gulf, called Al-Bakr Port, with an exporting capacity of at least 1.5 million bpd.

Iraq's crude production is currently at around 200,000 bpd, or 8 per cent of its pre-war level of 2.5 million bpd.

The acting head of the Iraqi oil ministry, Thamir Ghadhban, said the battered oil sector could produce enough for the external market by next month.

"We hope that during June refining capacity in Iraq will exceed half a million bpd. So concurrent with that, oil production in Iraq will exceed a million bpd," Ghadhban said.

Meanwhile, the United States was making desperate efforts to lift UN sanctions on Iraq to start exporting oil to pay for the mammoth task of rebuilding after the downfall of President Saddam Hussein.

A draft resolution presented by Washington to the UN Security Council proposes to end the sanctions slapped on Saddam's regime 13 years ago and channel the oil sales revenue into an Iraqi Assistance Fund administered by the US-led coalition.

The fund is supposed to function for at least one year until a new Iraqi government is formed.

Observers believe the dictatorship of Saddam's regime and the alleged weapons of mass destruction were only pretexts the US used to launch the war to control Iraq.

Washington really wants to put its grip on Iraq's oil riches to meet the ever-growing US need for oil.

"Oil is an enslaver of the people," an Islamic wise man said.

Many Iraqis ask: "Had it not been for oil, would the United States go out of its way and spend billions of greenbacks at its own expense to 'liberate' the Iraqi people?"

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2003)