Resources and Land Use
Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur
Land use:
arable land: 12%
permanent crops: 17%
permanent pastures: 13%
forests and woodland: 2%
other: 79% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 25,500 km2 or 9,800 sq mi (1993 est.)
While its proven oil reserves of 112 billion barrels (17.8×109 m3) ranks Iraq second in the world behind Saudi Arabia, the United States Department of Energy estimates that up to 90 percent of the country remains unexplored. Unexplored regions of Iraq could yield an additional 100 billion barrels (16×109 m3). Iraq's oil production costs are among the lowest in the world. However, only about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared to about 1 million wells in Texas alone.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Iraq
Famous quotes containing the words resources and/or land:
“In Western Europe people perish from the congestion and stifling closeness, but with us it is from the spaciousness.... The expanses are so great that the little man hasn’t the resources to orient himself.... This is what I think about Russian suicides.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
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—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)