May 16, 2003: US Adviser to Iraq Oil Ministry Says Iraq Might End Its Membership in OPEC

Philip Carroll, the chief adviser to the new Iraqi government’s oil ministry, tells the Washington Post that Iraq might end its membership in OPEC. “[Iraqis] have from time to time, because of compelling national interest, elected to opt out of the quota system and pursue their own path…. [The new Iraqi government] may elect to do that same thing.” But Carroll later tells investigative reporter Greg Palast that he personally would not have supported privatization. “Nobody in their right mind would have thought of doing that,” he later explains. [Washington Post, 5/17/2003, pp. E01]