Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back

[Kablooie]

Source: New York Times

BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

...

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.

...

There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.






Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

---

Here we go!
Mission Accomplished!

[ixion]

1. "after losing their oil concession to nationalization"

and thus we see the REAL reason for the illegal invasion of Iraq.

[subsuelo]

6. And the real reason for rising animosity towards Hugo Chavez n/t

[kimmerspixelated]

19. Bingo, but

really, IF the world is running out of oil, how is possible to even make such a deal????
It nauseates me to think we raped and pillaged a country, anyway, and then this imperialistic attitude of oil ownership makes me want to hurl giant cleepers! I am so embaressed by our greed and audacity!

[Megahurtz]

2. ...

:puke:

[Runcible Spoon]

15. seconded...

:puke:

[Amonester]

3. lemme guess...

one grand the CEO's of these predatorporations had a private meeting with darth cheneyousself before his "New Pearl Harbor" wet dream came true...

and another grand boys 'n girls in the NG will be asked (forced) to sacrifice en masse (4000+ already...) :grr:

[stillcool]

4. oh boy...

“These are not actually service contracts,” Ms. Benali said. “They were designed to circumvent the legislative stalemate” and bring Western companies with experience managing large projects into Iraq before the passage of the oil law.

[leftchick]

5. David Harvey said it best.....

The United States invasion of Iraq then takes on an even broader meaning. Not only does it constitute an attempt to control the global oil spigot and hence the global economy though domination over the Middle East. It also constitutes a powerful US military bridgehead on the Eurasian land mass which ... yields it a powerful geostrategic position in Eurasia with at least the potentiality to disrupt any consolidation of an Eurasian power that could indeed be the next step in that endless accumulation of political power that must always accompany the equally endless accumulation of capital.
- David Harvey, The New Imperialism, 2003


Too bad the NYT can not seem to find an investigative reporter anywhere to really cover a story properly. It just proves once again they are nothing more than "The Paper of Propaganda".

[seafan]

7. Iraq to contract with four Western oil companies: report

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four Western oil companies are close to signing oil contracts with the Iraqi government that will return them to the country for the first time in 36 years, the New York Times reported in its online edition.

Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), which had partnerships with the Iraq Petroleum Co. before the industry was nationalized by Saddam Hussein, as well as Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and a number of smaller oil producers, have been in talks with the oil ministry, it said.

.....

The deals are expected to be announced on June 30 and will be awarded on a no-bid basis. They will be an extension of current agreements in which the companies are providing free advice and training to the Iraqis.

A total of 46 companies, including those from China, India and Russia have memorandums of understanding to provide that assistance to Iraq but were not awarded contracts.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/pressReleases/idUKN1828996920080619

---

The heist is underway.

[Baby Snooks]

8. You got it!

"The heist is underway."

You got it. The Bush administration didn't get its oil law. So it just worked around the law and guaranteed that the big oil companies would get the contracts. And screw not only the Iraqi people but the American people as well. Prices at the pump will not go down. Gasoline is becoming a luxury in this country. With enormous profits for the big oil companies. At least it will solve the supply and demand problem.

Thank you Nancy Pelosi. This administration should have been removed from office in January of 2007. But you kept it off the table. What did you get under the table?

It the people in San Francisco return her to office I will never go to San Francisco again and will boycott any and all products from San Francisco.

She belongs at Nuremberg along with the rest of them.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. The Iraqi Resistance may have a thing or two to say about it, though -n/t

[ashling]

9. We found the WMD

...which had partnerships with the Iraq Petroleum Co. before the industry was nationalized by Saddam Hussein

[Baby Snooks]

12. You got it too!

This was all about the oil and expanding the "military-industrial complex" of the Bushes and their oligarchy. Nothing more.

Almost 3,000 people in New York and Washington were sacrificed along with the passengers on those four planes on 9/11 along with over 4,000 of our military personnel along with contractors lured to Baghdad with the promise of enormous salaries that were tax-free, no doubt not including a life insurance policy, and over a million innocent Iraqis.

Everyone in Congress should hang their heads in shame. Most of all Nancy Pelosi.

[Amonester]

13. 4,101 (a list that will never stop adding up)

icasualties.org

but... they R "just a number" for McBush & ** & chainy & Big Oil

[Ian David]

10. Mission Accomplished! n/t

[Theres-a]

14. O. peration I. raqi L. iberation nt

[maxsolomon]

11. the end game is revealed

once iraq caves to the permanent bases demand, the iraq-shaped corner president cheney is painting BHO into will be complete.

every 10%-er who was ridiculed & called traitor for claiming this war is for oil is vindicated. does anyone still think it was for "freedom"?

[Tab]

17. Oil giants lining up for slice of Iraqi resources

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Global oil giants are preparing to return to Iraq after being chased out of the oil-rich country 36 years ago by the late dictator Saddam Hussein, reports said Thursday.

Shell, BP and ExxonMobil are all eagerly lining up to tap into the resources of the Middle Eastern nation with a deal due to be signed on June 30, the New York Times said quoting oil companies and a US diplomat.

"The deals ... will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations," the Times said.
...
The agreements cover Kirkuk field (Shell), Rumaila (BP), Al-Zubair (ExxonMobil), West Qurna Phase I (Chevron and Total), Missan province development (Shell and BHP Billiton) and the Subba and Luhais fields (Anadarko, Vitol and the UAE's Dome), MEES said.
...
Iraq was predicting 70 billion dollars in oil revenue this year, with reserves that "could well exceed" 350 billion barrels, and with the International Monetary Fund slating eight percent growth in 2008.

Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ia8Nq8bLbVxqs3UrRQbRareSMn6Q

[bluerum]

18. Oh yeah. They are paying neWt gingriCh to stir this pot too. They want

it all.

Why can't we pour $$$ into alternative energy research, create jobs, send kids to school and develop safe abundant energy sources so we are not enslaved by OPEC and their oil corpo terrorist pawns.

[pinniped]

20. Uh, doesn't this just confirm the suspicion????

There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract.

[Mika]

21. So, I guess that cheap gas is right around the corner. Any minute now.

Iraq will be completely rebuilt and we'll get cheap gas. Right?

NOT!