Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back

[groovedaddy]

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.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, 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.
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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.

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

[MasonJar]

1. Now can we at least forget about ANWR?

[maxsolomon]

2. president obama, the box we've prepared for you is ready

permanent military bases next to iran & SA, & american oil corporations extracting the world's largest remaining reserves.

what did you think this war was FOR, anyway? freedom?

[tom_paine]

3. Looks like the main goal, perhaps the only goal of the Iraq Invasion, is nearing completion

Hurrah.

[Diclotican]

4. groovedaddy

groovedaddy

We know it was about te Oil from the get go... But the right wingers of this world say no, it was not about oil, but about freedom and liberty

And now, the old "habit" of plundering another country for their wealth is back. Do you REALLY the iraqi people would be given their share of the wealth from the oil wells?

No, they would be given less than nothing, compared to what the big oil companies would be given....

In the old days, the "empires" was at least honest about their greed.. But this empire that mr Bush have made possible, are not either honest or nothing else like that.. But they do plunder the world... And in this case Iraq

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english not my native language

[paparush]

5. The Neocons greet them as Liberators.

Liberating their oil.
Liberating their wealth.
Liberating their liberty.

[acmavm]

6. Liberating untold thousands from their lives.