Iran, Iraq to Sign Pipeline Deal

[bemildred]

Source: FARS

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran and Iraq will sign a deal in the next few days to build a pipeline that would transfer crude from southern Iraqi oilfields to refineries in Iran, a senior Iranian official said yesterday.

Iraq announced in May it had agreed to begin discussions with Iran over the pipeline that will carry 200,000 barrels of Iraqi crude to Iran per day.

"Based on this contract the Iraqi crude will be imported and oil products will be exported (to Iraq)," Iran's first vice-president Parviz Davoudi said.

He said Iraqi oil minister Hussain Al Shahristani would visit Tehran "in coming days." Davoudi was speaking after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki who visited Tehran on Wednesday and Thursday.

Read more: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8605190104

[truthisfreedom]

1. Nice. Perhaps Iran could provide some security for said pipeline.

Could make for an interesting bedfellowship.

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Well, Bushco will definitely bomb them now, I guess. nt

[earthboundmisfit]

3. Ruh-roh.

Guess Chimpy's gonna "have to have a heart-to-heart" with al-Maliki now -

[bemildred]

4. That was my first thought. nt

[0007]

21. Perhaps al-Maliki will go hunting with dick. nt

[peacetalksforall]

5. Pipelines and security of pipelines are key to everything.

Our oil companies are planning big contracts with the Iraqi govt and want to bomb Iran.
Man, PNAC and the barons have so many problems.

[Ian David]

6. Welcome to Halliburtonstan! n/t

[dogfacedboy]

14. Isn't Haliburtonstan a close ally of SaudiIsraelia? n/t

[tecelote]

7. Looks like Cheney's threats are not working.

Isn't that "our" oil they're talking about?

[CGowen]

8. Iran has it's own problems (I don't get why they would sell to Iraq, but it's not that much)

The Islamic Republic produces 44 million litres of refined fuel a day which provides less than half of domestic requirements. It is a vulnerability that Washington has indicated it will use as a lever in its efforts to curb Iran's nuclear programme.

....


Iran plans to build three oil refineries in its southern Khuzestan province to be located in Abadan, Andimeshk and between Omidiyeh and Mahshahr. Oil Minister Seyed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh has also said Iran will participate in five new refineries to be sited in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Syria. These refineries would have a production capacity of 1.1 million barrels per day and be supplied with Iranian crude.

US opposition could prove decisive though if Washington invokes its 1995 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act against international companies deemed to be investing more than $20m in Iran's energy sector.

Politics aside, Iran's refinery dilemma reflects a global problem. Total world refined output is some 86 million barrels per day. On present trends output will need to rise to 93 million bpd in the next three years and increase to 113 million bpd by 2030 to meet world demand. According to the International Energy Agency, a third of this investment will be needed in the Middle East and China alone.

http://www.ameinfo.com/128562.html

[Poll_Blind]

9. Awe crap, I hope the U.S. and Israel are OK with this. Otherwise, there's going to be...

...heck to pay!

PB

[Hydra]

10. Yeah this doesn't mesh with what I know about Iran's refining capacity

but oh ****! :hide:

I can't think of anything the Iraqis could do to piss off Shrub's Snatch n' Grab oil friends off more than this!

[Texifornia]

19. 'Zactly!

Economically, this makes no sense. The motives are almost certainly political.

[OldTymeDem]

11. Crap!

And all along I thought the oil was all headed this way, or so I was told.

[YankeyMCC]

12. Chenbushco can even screw up their own evil plans nt

[OldTymeDem]

13. So what stopping BushCo?

From bringin the oil here as planned?---securing pipelines and the ports shouldnt be an issue if that is what your really after, and the govt of Iraq is a "puppet" govt and does what Bushco wants, or so I am told, so where is the freakin oil?!! I am sick of these high prices!!

[Usrename]

15. Do you really expect them to pass the savings on to you?

After they went to all that trouble to steal it.

[OldTymeDem]

16. I suppose not....

But hey, they broke into the "store", so steal the freakin oil and get out already! Lets have something to show for this grand mis-adventure! Jeezsch!

[Usrename]

17. Yeah, well, the best thing that could happen is for Iran to get the oil.

There is a reason why everyone calls the effects of these criminals in charge of our government "the reverse Robin Hood policy."

[OldTymeDem]

18. why would we want Iran to get the oil?

they are already drowning in it..

[stillcool]

24. laws and contracts...

The oil law is one of the 'benchmarks' the Iraqi government must meet to bring 'stability' to the region, which in turn will allow a reduction in U.S. forces. There have been many articles referencing the passage of an oil law, but none to date has actually been completed.

Benchmark Boogie: A Guide to the Struggle Over Iraq's Oil

By Antonia Juhasz, AlterNet. Posted July 14, 2007.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/56672/

The Bush administration has spent four years trying to force successive Iraqi governments to pass the law, referred to as either the "hydrocarbons" or "oil" law. While it has gone through several permutations, the basics have remained the same and have followed the original prescriptions set out by the State Department.

The law would change Iraq's oil system from a nationalized model -- all but closed to U.S. oil companies -- to a privatized model open to foreign corporate control. At least two-thirds of Iraq's oil would be open to foreign oil companies under terms that they usually only dream about, including 30-year-long contracts. (For details of the law, see my March 2007 New York Times Op-Ed, "Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?")

In January, after four years of trying to get the law passed in Iraq, President Bush went public with this demand when he made his "speech to the nation" announcing the "surge" of 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.

The president explained that the surge would be successful where other U.S. efforts had failed in Iraq because the Iraqi government would be held to a set of specific "benchmarks." Those benchmarks were laid out in a White House Fact Sheet released the same day that explained that the Iraq government had committed to several economic and political measures, including to "enact hydrocarbons law to promote investment, national unity, and reconciliation."

After the speech, the administration increased public pressure on the Iraqi government to pass the law. However, that speech was just about the only time that the president or anyone in the administration would use the word "investment" to describe the law. Instead, the adminstration would refer generally to the law's capacity to bring "national unity and reconciliation" by establishing a mechanism to evenly distribute Iraq's oil revenues among Iraqis on a per capita basis.

[sarcasmo]

20. Electricity is the answer, SCREW oil.

End the Oil Wars.

[Jim Warren]

22. Was this in the neocon playbook?

For some reason I don't think this is what the bushies had in mind.

[dipsydoodle]

23. How wickedly ironic

2 late to recommend but its the thought that count.

[struggle4progress]

25. Iraq, Iran Sign Oil-Pipeline Deal

August 11, 2007 -- Iran's state-controlled media report that Iran and Iraq have signed an agreement on building an oil pipeline between the two countries.

The Iran news network reported that the pipeline would carry oil from Iraqi oil fields to refineries in Iran.

It said the deal was signed in Tehran on August 10 by Iraqi Oil Minister Husayn al-Shahristani and his Iranian counterpart, Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh. ~snip~

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/08/725AEBBD-AAEC-4909-9598-1A713BC20411.html

[Buck Rabbit]

26. The Halliburton paid Blackwell insurgents will bomb this pipeline. nonstop.

Is my prediction.