Iraqi fuel prices - an observation.

A recent http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1457283&mesg_id=1457283">DU thread links to a PDF of a document that the WaPo obtained with details of the hardships cooperative Iraqis are facing.

The document ( found http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/graphics/iraqdocs_061606.pdf">HERE) is worth reading - it gives a real sense of the dangers of cooperating with the Americans.

There is an interesting fact buried in there that has little to do with those horrors, but which is illuminating, nonetheless.

From a section of the PDF which tells of the brutal gas shortages:

"Another staff member confirmed that shortages were so dire, {gasoline} prices on the black market in much of Baghdad were now above 1,000 Iraqi dinars per liter (the official, subsidized price is 250 ID)."

Whoa. Iraquis are paying four times the normal price for gasoline on the black market to avoid waiting in 12-hour gas lines.

But how much are they actually paying? Earlier in the memo, we learn that 90,000 ID = $60 US. knowing that, we can figure out that:

90000 ID ~= $60 US
1000 ID / liter ~= $0.67 US / liter

1 gallon = 3.7852 liter

.67 USD x 3.7852 ~= $2.54 / gallon


So fuel shortages in Iraq are so severe, that Iraqis have to resort to paying usurious rates on the black market for gasoline - sometimes paying as much as $2.54 per gallon!!

Why then are we, who are NOT living in a war-ravaged country, and who are NOT being subjected to critical fuel shortages so severe that we have to buy gasoline on the black market, paying $2.75 - $3.00 per gallon?

Could it be that we have our OWN black marketeers who are gouging us? And could those slimy bastards be named, oh, I dunno... EXXON et al?

per month, how much is a pound of flour, quart of milk, and pound of meat. I don't know those things.


But $2.54 sounds astronomical if we assume that they are making a lot less than $10,000 a year on average.

...the price of oil is set by the international commodities trade in crude.

If gasoline costs $2.75 in America, where we have adequate supply, refining capacity and delivery infrastructure, how can it cost LESS per gallon in a war zone?

If the oil executives are to be believed, gasoline, which costs $2.75 US based on the worldwide cost of crude, then how is the base price of gasoline in Iraq $0.64 / gallon, and the outrageous black market price $2.54 / gallon? Are the oil companies selling gas to Iraqis at a loss?

That they have oil but no more refineries?Therefore,they have to import gasoline?