Oil firms wait as Iraq crisis unfolds:

“The world’s biggest oil bonanza in recent memory may be just around the corner, giving U.S. oil companies huge profits and American consumers cheap gasoline for decades to come.

And it all may come courtesy of a war with Iraq.

While debate intensifies about the Bush administration’s policy, oil analysts and Iraqi exile leaders believe a new, pro-Western government — assuming it were to replace Saddam Hussein’s regime — would prompt U.S. and multinational petroleum giants to rush into Iraq, dramatically increasing the output of a nation whose oil reserves are second only to that of Saudi Arabia.” SF Chronicle

However, it strikes me as just as likely that a post-Saddam Iraq, while throwing the doors open to petrochemical companies to help it exploit its oil resources efficiently, would collaborate with OPEC on pricing in order to pull in urgently needed cash for reconstruction, rather than compete with OPEC as this article suggests. Unless, of course, it becomes a US territory.