Oil rush: Scramble for Iraq's wealth
Critics
said the war was all about the nation's lucrative fuel industry. Are
they now being proved right? Patrick Cockburn reports from Baghdad
For many Iraqis, the reason the US invaded their country in 2003 was to
get control of their oil. I never believed this at the time. I thought
that the US overthrew Saddam Hussein and occupied Iraq primarily
because it wanted to reassert its power after 9/11 and believed the war
in Iraq would be easily won.
It is only now, six years after the American invasion, that the battle
for the control of Iraqi oil production is moving to the centre of
politics in Baghdad. On 29 and 30 June, the Iraqi government will award
contracts under which international oil companies will take a central
role in producing crude oil from Iraq's six super-giant oilfields over
the next 20 to 25 years. By coincidence, 30 June is also the date on
which the last American troops will be leaving Iraqi cities. On the
very day that Iraq regains greater physical authority over its
territory, it is ceding a measure of control over the oilfields on
which the future of the country entirely depends.
The contracts have been heavily criticised inside Iraq as a sell-out to
the big oil companies, which are desperate to get back into Iraq – oil
was nationalised here in 1972, and Iraq and Iran are the only two
places in the world where immense quantities of oil might still be
discovered. Several of those criticising the contracts work in the
Iraqi oil industry. "The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy
in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years," said
Fayad al-Nema, head of the state-owned South Oil Company, which
produces 80 per cent of Iraq's crude. "They squander Iraq's reserves."
The Rest Is Here:
http://www.myantiwar.org/view/182046.html
Critics
said the war was all about the nation's lucrative fuel industry. Are
they now being proved right? Patrick Cockburn reports from Baghdad
For many Iraqis, the reason the US invaded their country in 2003 was to
get control of their oil. I never believed this at the time. I thought
that the US overthrew Saddam Hussein and occupied Iraq primarily
because it wanted to reassert its power after 9/11 and believed the war
in Iraq would be easily won.
It is only now, six years after the American invasion, that the battle
for the control of Iraqi oil production is moving to the centre of
politics in Baghdad. On 29 and 30 June, the Iraqi government will award
contracts under which international oil companies will take a central
role in producing crude oil from Iraq's six super-giant oilfields over
the next 20 to 25 years. By coincidence, 30 June is also the date on
which the last American troops will be leaving Iraqi cities. On the
very day that Iraq regains greater physical authority over its
territory, it is ceding a measure of control over the oilfields on
which the future of the country entirely depends.
The contracts have been heavily criticised inside Iraq as a sell-out to
the big oil companies, which are desperate to get back into Iraq – oil
was nationalised here in 1972, and Iraq and Iran are the only two
places in the world where immense quantities of oil might still be
discovered. Several of those criticising the contracts work in the
Iraqi oil industry. "The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy
in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years," said
Fayad al-Nema, head of the state-owned South Oil Company, which
produces 80 per cent of Iraq's crude. "They squander Iraq's reserves."
The Rest Is Here:
http://www.myantiwar.org/view/182046.html
