Soros Swimming in Iraq Oil Bonanza

As Rod Martin points out below, Iraq’s oil reserves may be twice what we previously thought. This is good news for George Soros.

Citing a report from the oil-and-gas consultancy IHS, Inc., the Financial Times online notes:

“Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought… The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers… If confirmed, it would raise Iraq from the world’s third largest source of oil reserves with 116bn barrels to second place, behind Saudi Arabia and overtaking Iran.” (1)

Iraq’s potential oil bonanza may help explain why Democrat donor and convicted insider trader George Soros recently bought up more than $60 million worth of shares in America’s largest oilfield development company, Halliburton, late last year, as reported on this blog. (2)

If indeed Mr. Soros knew the contents of that explosive IHS report as early as the fourth quarter of 2006, we are forced to speculate how he found out. The report — which is not slated for official release until May 9 — was only announced yesterday. (3)

We hope and trust that Mr. Soros learned a lesson from his 2002 conviction for insider trading and — in this case, at least — did not profit from information gained by less-than-savory means. (4)

Cross-posted from TheVanguard.org 04.19.07 12:30 pm ET

NOTES
1. Ed Crooks, “Iraq May Hold Twice as Much Oil“, FT.com (Financial Times online), 18 April 2007