More Blood For Oil

[losthills]

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

June 19, 2008
Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
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.

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.

.....

These "contracts" are pretty much guarranteed to cause more conflict and make it impossible for the next president to bring the troops home. Can anyone spell "Resource Wars?"

[driver8]

1. But we all know that this war was not about oil.

Yeah, pull my right leg and it plays "Jingle Bells"...

This absolutely infuriates me. Cheney should be forced to release all documents pertaining to his "energy policy" meetings that he held with the oil companies. This is bullshit.

Also, if the oil companies want to go in and reap these huge profits they are sure to reap, let them pay for their own security forces. Why should our soldiers (on our tax dollars) be expected to protect the interests of the oil companies??

Man, this absolutely pisses me off.

[losthills]

2. Yeah, there's a lot here to be infuriated about.

Bushco was desperate to get these contracts signed before the election. This goes hand in hand with the "Security Agreement" that gives the US 58 permanent bases in Iraq.

[SergeyDovlatov]

3. Judging current oil prices, paying with blood doesn't seem to work out that well n/t