“The morning of Monday, February 24 [2003], the president [Bush] attended a secret NSC [National Security Council] briefing called ‘Planning for the Iraqi Petroleum Infrastructure: Issues for Decision.’ The president and the others had high hopes that the Iraqi oil industry, if freed from UN sanctions, could be the fast track for a new regime to reenter the world economy. Pamela Quanrud, a State Department economist working on the NSC staff…said in the event of war, they might face a cost of $7 billion to rebuild the oil infrastructure if Saddam blew up the wells as he had done in 1991. …Recovery would have three phases. First, the military would secure the oil infrastructure. Then, the US would work with a growing Iraqi civil administration to establish a temporary oil authority and resume production. The oil authority would have an Iraqi chief operating officer and an advisory board of Iraqi and international experts. Finally, once a new Iraqi government took power, Iraqi management would be completely in control.”
– Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, Pages 322-323