Iraq could turn itself from a war-torn, struggling country into somewhere as successful as Dubai or Singapore, if it takes proper advantage of its huge oil reserves.
That's according to Sydney Morning Herald Chief Correspondent Paul McGeough, who presents a special report on whether oil can save Iraq for Dateline on SBS ONE.
Iraq sits on the third biggest oil reserve in the world, but is struggling to turn it into wealth, partly because it's still without a proper government, seven months after elections.
Power shortages
Iraq also lacks proper infrastructure…Baghdad is typical of places facing sporadic electricity supplies, lack of water and petrol shortages, all against temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius.
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Paul spoke to one family in Baghdad, who are squatting in a bomb-damaged office block. Zaheda Khan told him that ordinary Iraqis are ”powerless” in every sense. “We live in the richest country, but we are the poorest nation,” she said.
Another problem facing the country is the lack of security – Paul and SBS cameraman Ryan Sheridan had an armed guard while they were filming for Dateline, and faced constant checkpoints and security fears.
“We were under strict instructions to not stay in the one place for more than 15 minutes, to travel with two cars and to have at least a couple of people watching us every second, as being kidnapped is a serious possibility”, Ryan wrote for Dateline's online blog.
Keeping control
But Iraq has maintained sovereign control of its greatest asset, with outside companies only receiving a flat per-barrel fee for bringing oil to the surface.
When those contracts were auctioned on national television, American companies largely missed out, despite the US leading the invasion which ousted former leader Saddam Hussein.
“This proves that the Iraqi government did not really deliver Iraqi oil on a golden plate to any company”, Thamir Ghadban, an energy advisor to the government, told McGeough.
Mr Ghadban was also optimistic that there would be proper power supplies by 2016 and more spending on health and education within two or three years.
But Paul believes there is still a long way to go to make that a reality, and failure could drive the country further apart.
“It just requires Iraqis to accept that there's so much of this black stuff that if they share it amongst themselves, they'll all get a decent whack of it,” he said.
Dateline
Watch Paul's report on the difficulties facing Iraq at this turning point in its history, on tonight's Dateline at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.
There's also more on the Dateline website, where Paul will be online for a live chat from 9.30pm AEDT.
