When we went to war in Iraq, those on the left yelled that we were shedding blood for oil. It seems that they may have been right — oil for our great friend and ally China.

According to this article,

China starts oil pumping in Iraq

China has begun pumping oil in southern Iraq in the first new oil field brought on line in the Middle Eastern country in more than 20 years.

The state-owned China National Petroleum Co. (CNPC) announced in its newspaper Tuesday the opening of the al-Ahdab field, located roughly 110 miles southeast from Baghdad.

The field began operating June 21, according to CNPC.

CNPC claims that the project, which had cost the company $3 billion, marks “significant progress in CNPC’s building of major oil and gas cooperation projects in the Middle East.”

The field is estimated to hold a billion barrels of crude oil and is expected to produce 115,000 barrels of oil daily by 2017.

The contract of the Iraqi government with CNPC to develop the al-Ahdab field, signed in November 2008, was the first oil field deal signed between the Iraqi government and an international company.

The contract gives full control of the oil field to the Iraqi government.

The Chinese government, instead of receiving a share of ownership of the field, will receive a fee of $6 per barrel, which will decrease to $3 when oil production reaches its maximum. The fee will be paid for 23 years.

. . . .

Al-Ahdab is not the only field that CNPC has developed in Iraq. CNPC and BP both produce in the Rumaila field in southern Iraq, estimated to be the largest in the country.

CNPC also is invested in Halfaya Field, near the Iranian border.

That’s cool. We probably didn’t do it ourselves because we have plenty of domestic oil. True, according to a recent Rasmussen survey

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that just 19% believe the United States does enough to develop its own gas and oil resources. Seventy-five percent (75%) do not think the country is doing enough in this area. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Even though we have money to burn and don’t need any more, maybe the Obama Administration can work out a deal with China similar to the one China has with Iraq.