IRAQI OIL- "Big Oil's big dreams are close to coming true ..."

[Orwellian_Ghost]

http://www.waronwant.org/thumbnail.php?id=3354&max=1000

...

The Times of London reported that ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell have been targeted by the Iraqi Oil Ministry for awarding the service contracts (known as "technical support agreements" or TSAs). The report said that in exchange for the oil, these four oil companies would direct training of Iraqi workers and equipment to Iraq's largest oil and gas fields. The Middle East Economic Survey has quoted Shahristani as saying that the service contracts will be signed "within a few weeks". The general expectation is that the TSAs will be signed during the third round of discussions due in March.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Oil Ministry's deadline for any interested oil firms to pre-register for the larger contracts to develop oil fields falls on February 18. Shahristani has promised an open bidding and transparent process but only in the event that he will be the decision-making authority. He suggested that competition would be intense. "Everybody in the world, more than 45 companies, have approached us and shown a very keen interest in working with us - the Chinese, Russians, Indians, Brazilians," Shahristani said.

In sum, as Ben Lando, United Press International's energy editor put it, "Big Oil's big dreams are close to coming true ... According to insiders, Shell, which produced a technical study of Kirkuk in 2005, wants a deal for the field. BP wants one for Rumaila, which it studied last year. Shell and BHP Billiton are angling for the Missan field in the south. ExxonMobil is interested in the southern Zubair field while the Sabha and Luhais fields are being targeted by Dome and Anadarko Petroleum. ConocoPhillips is talking with the ministry about the West Qurna oil field ... Chevron and Total have teamed up in a bid for the Majnoon field."

No doubt, it is pay-off time for the four majors who didn't make an issue of the US military occupation of Iraq or the ensuing mess-ups during Paul Bremer's rule or the ensuing acute security situation, but kept going with their nose on the ground and worked with the Iraqi ministry during the past four years in conducting reservoir surveys, assisting in the drawing up of work plans and in training personnel. These oil majors simply chose to be around in Baghdad even when much of the oil industry was idling. Lando adds, "While service contracts would be highly profitable for companies, Big Oil wants risk contracts. Such deals are usually long term, covering its exploration costs and guaranteeing a profit if oil is found, and allowing them to put the reserves it discovers on the books, a boon in Wall Street's eyes."

...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB16Ak06.html

[fascisthunter]

1. The Repercussions of this WIll Be Felt for Generations

Once again, private industry ripping off countries. People wonder why terrorism exists.... real ignorant.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. Mission Accomplished.

For now anyways, tomorrow may be another story.

[acmavm]

3. They think they may be coming true. I personally thing that if these

contracts are awarded that will be the final straw. Civil war won't be the problem, it will be out and out guerilla warfare unlike anything we've seen so far.

[Ikonoklast]

4. Iraq was cut up by Cheney and Big Oil at their little get-together

All they needed was an excuse to invade.

Voila! 9-11!!


It was about oil, always oil, and only oil.

[enid602]

5. expenisve

Too bad the American public had to take on another $2 TRILLION in debt so these oil companies could have such an opportunity. Talk about a long way 'round the barn!

[Orwellian_Ghost]

6. Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?

Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?
ANTONIA JUHASZ
Published: March 13, 2007
San Francisco


TODAY more than three-quarters of the world’s oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn’t always this way.

Until about 35 years ago, the world’s oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. They are among the world’s largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back.

Iraq’s oil reserves — thought to be the second largest in the world — have always been high on the corporate wish list. In 1998, Kenneth Derr, then chief executive of Chevron, told a San Francisco audience, “Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas — reserves I’d love Chevron to have access to.”

A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal. The Iraq hydrocarbon law would take the majority of Iraq’s oil out of the exclusive hands of the Iraqi government and open it to international oil companies for a generation or more.

In March 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force), which included executives of America’s largest energy companies, recommended that the United States government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries “to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment.” One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13juhasz.html

[spanone]

7. mission almost accomplished

[JohnyCanuck]

8. It was never about the oil

It was about the money that could be made by controlling and selling the oil.

[Initech]

9. Yup, this is exactly what this war has been for all along.

And once again, big business wins every motherfucking time and we all get fucked. And instead, there's been more investigations into whether or not a baseball player got injections in the ass. Welcome to Bush's America: Where logic takes a holiday and the rules dont apply. :banghead: