i guess this means Cheney won afterall...

[kpete]

"The last thing the US cares about in the Middle East is democracy. It is about oil, full stop."


Baghdad, Iraq - While the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain.

On November 27, 38 months after Royal Dutch Shell announced its pursuit of a massive gas deal in southern Iraq, the oil giant had its contract signed for a $17bn flared gas deal.

Three days later, the US-based energy firm Emerson submitted a bid for a contract to operate at Iraq's giant Zubair oil field, which reportedly holds some eight million barrels of oil.

...............

"Prior to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, US and other western oil companies were all but completely shut out of Iraq's oil market," oil industry analyst Antonia Juhasz told Al Jazeera. "But thanks to the invasion and occupation, the companies are now back inside Iraq and producing oil there for the first time since being forced out of the country in 1973."


http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/2011122813134071641.html

[leveymg]

1. Looks more like China is the net winner in this. US paid a trillion bucks for a couple smaller

fields. The big ones are in Kudistan and Basra, areas that are not open to US-based producers.

[kpete]

2. ..........a little piece of the cake for China and some of the other countries

........western oil companies have successfully acquired the lions' share of Iraq's oil, "but they gave a little piece of the cake for China and some of the other countries and companies to keep them silent".

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/2011122813134071641.html

[Luminous Animal]

3. Kick.

[Ship of Fools]

4. Sweet Jeezuz.