Safer Iraq said needed for U.S. investment

HOUSTON – Iraq’s instability has kept foreign oil companies from investing in reconstruction, compounding what officials see as a litany of woes confronting the country’s once-dominant oil sector from corruption to poorly maintained fields.

While the world’s thirst for oil grows, untapped Iraqi reserves and current production that still hasn’t met prewar levels remain a problem with no imminent solution.

Only when Iraq’s newly formed government guarantees a safer environment will the billions of dollars needed begin to flow, analysts and officials say.

“It’s too soon to make a judgment on how close we are. … I suspect we could be a few years away,” Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister recently told The Associated Press.

AP