Shouldn't Iraq be rich?

[brooklyn77]

I consider myself to be up to speed with what is happening in the world but one thing confuses me. As Iraq is one of the biggest oil owners in the world, what happens to all the proceeds of Iraq's oil?? As Iraq owns so many oil wells, shouldn't the Iraq people be living in a not so poor country or living conditions? Am i right in saying that Saddam just spend it on his palaces and army?? If so, then there is another reason to get rid of him. If not, what happens to the money then?

[Worker]

I've often thought that. The only thing I can come up with is that there may well be an embargo on importing Iraqi oil - legally, but there must be some who still import it!

[FredPuli]

Iraq has the biggest untapped oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia with 11% of the estimated total against their 26%.The full extent of their reserves is still not known and may even be much greater than that. It is also cheap to exploit, primarily because new wells usually have oil under great pressure which makes it easy to extract. So the country is sitting on great wealth.