What were the potential prospects for post-war oil exploration in Iraq?

At 2 million barrels a day, Iraq's annual oil income might total $15 billion. For the foreseeable future, that won't be enough to meet the essential needs of the Iraqi people while rebuilding and growing the country's energy sector.

Clearly, an infusion of external investment and know-how is needed if Iraq is to further develop its existing fields and find new ones. The international oil industry, teamed up with the capital markets, is equipped for that job.

We're prepared to make the investments once Iraq's new government takes root with popular support, a new legal system is established and its tax regime is defined.

Although the final decision for inviting foreign investment ultimately rests with a representative Iraqi government, I believe in due course the invitation will come.

In the meantime, my own company and others are providing immediate assistance to Iraq by setting up commercial arrangements for lifting and transporting current production and assisting with humanitarian aid.

ChevronTexaco has also offered its help in establishing new legal and tax systems, as we did in Kazakhstan with a consortium of experts. And we're ready to consider other proposals where we could help speed reconstruction."

Of Iraq's 74 discovered and evaluated fields, only 15 have been developed. Iraq's western desert is considered to be highly prospective but yet to be explored.

There are 526 known structures that have been discovered, delineated, mapped, and classified as potential prospects in Iraq of which only 125 have been drilled."

Favorable geology has given Iraq some of the world's most prolific oil wells. In 1979 Iraqi wells produced an average of 13,700 barrels per day(bpd). By contrast each Saudi Arabian well averaged10,200 barrels.

The average cost for pumping a barrel of oil out of the ground in the US is about $10; in Iraq it is less than $1."

These fields may harbor the world's largest remaining reservoir of unmapped and unclaimed petroleum -- far exceeding the untapped fields in Alaska, Africa and the Caspian.

Whoever gains possession of these fields will exercise enormous influence over the global energy markets of the twenty-first century."

None of this has gone unnoticed by non-American companies from more than a dozen nations - including France, Russia, China, India, Italy, Vietnam, and Algeria - who have oil interests in Iraq. Nervous that a pro-American government in Baghdad might exclude them, representatives of those companies have met with leaders of the Iraqi opposition to make their case for a future stake in a post-Hussein Iraq. Although many of the foreign oil concerns have existing agreements (or have sought to reach agreements in principle) to develop and expand Iraq's oil industry, Iraqi opposition officials have made it clear that they will not be bound by any existing deals."