The Effects Of Natural Resources On A National Scale

Introduction Natural resources, are a key to humanity’s existence, and are often consider the cause of most conflicts, ranging from simple, disputes between neighbours to full, international conflicts that require U.N intervention . It is human nature to want more material possessions, and natural resources, like oil, water, natural gas, minerals and precious metals, are often considered to be the most pure of these possessions. On a national scale, the world leaders have a responsibility to look after these resources, but as countries with varying political ideologies grow ever closer to one another, conflict over who’s resources are who’s, seems inevitable. According to a research paper published in 2012 by academia at the Massachusetts†¦show more content†¦[2] Not surprisingly, the Middle East has frequently been at the centre of political debate and conflict, particularly in the Persian Gulf region. The Persian Gulf is home to nearly all the Middle Eastern supply of crude oil, and contains the largest offshore oil field in the world, the ‘Safaniya Oil Field’ as it is known, is regarded with so much value, that the US spent over 8 trillion USD attempting to protect it. [3] The US also used other huge amounts of military expenditure to protect inland oil fields within Iraq, and promised the Iraqi oil sector 2.05 billion USD in order to fully modernize the oil drilling apparatus. However, according to other international sources, it could take up to 100 billion USD of US money to fully complete the long-term reconstruction of the Iraqi oil industry. [4] Iraqi oil production has been on the increase since 2007, but this gradual increase has since stalled, once again prohibiting the U.S plan of gaining a substantial profit from the 12th largest oil producing country in the world. This, among other reasons is due to the loss of Iraqi workers after the Iraq war. Although sporadic violence continues, the country is considered stable enough to host workers and their families safely; the amount of Iraqi men that are unemployed is decreasing. This directly correlates