Iraq Oil Report

Plus:
*Shell CEO confirms ready to help Iraq oil
*Who controls Iraq’s oil?
*Battles of Basra and oil
*Violence deaths up in Iraq
*Iraqis resent Green Zone

Lebanon’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah has issued a religious edict banning attacks on Iraq’s oil industry and other public infrastructure, Naharnet reports. Fadlallah also urged Iraqis on Monday to solve their problems through dialogue.

Royal Dutch Shell is ready to help Iraq boost oil production once that country’s government finalizes a petroleum law covering big energy projects, the head of the oil giant said on Tuesday, Reuters reports. “We are very much prepared to go back to Iraq,” Shell chief executive officer Jeroen van der Veer said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

UK’s Channel 4 excellent video Who Controls Iraq’s Oil, featuring the first glimpse of DNO’s Tawke oil field and problems exporting and a dialogue of Iraqi, UK and Iraqi experts on the oil issue:

The Battle of Basra and its Oil Dimension, by noted Iraq journalist Walid Khadduri.

The Iraqi army’s crackdown on Shi’ite gunmen in Basra is a long overdue battle the government needs to win to assert its authority over the oil-rich province and end the oil smuggling that is robbing the state of billions of dollars, Platts reports. The first round in the battle to control Basra, Iraq’s second-biggest city and its main oil export terminal, has ended without a clear winner, with the militias still entrenched in their strongholds after a week of fierce fighting in which up to 300 people may have died, security sources said March 31.

The Basra Fallout

Perhaps the best way to understand what led to, happened and is the consequence of last week’s violence in Basra is a “choose your own adventure” book. Absent that, below is continuing and varied coverage of note:

Did Maliki do Sadr a Favor in Basra? Noah Shachtman asks in Wired.com

As the smoke clears over new rubble in Iraq’s second city, at the heart of Iraq’s oil region, it’s apparent that the big winner of the Six-Day War in Basra are the forces of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army faced down the Iraqi armed forces not only in Basra, but in Baghdad, as well as in Kut, Amarah, Nasiriyah, and Diwaniya, capitals of four key southern provinces, Robert Dreyfuss reports for The Nation.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday ordered government security forces to stop random raids and arrests in Basra after nearly a week of fighting, UPI reports.

What Direction for the al-Mahdi Army after the Basra Offensive? Babak Rahimi asks in The Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Focus.

Iraqi forces appear to have done “a pretty good job” in an offensive to regain control of Basra from Shiite militias, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Monday, Middle East Online reports. “We’re obviously hopeful that he will achieve most of his objectives, and see calm return as well,” Gates told reporters enroute here from Brussels, referring to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Security, Society & Politics

Violent civilian deaths in Iraq climbed to their highest level since mid-2007, Iraqi government figures showed on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Iraqis resent the Green Zone, not only because it symbolizes the American occupation in Baghdad, but also because it is the only region in Iraq which does not suffer from a lack of services unlike other Iraqi cities and regions, Basil Adas reports for Gulf News.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to revisit the Iraq issue and its assistance program there, according to the Security Council Report.

Consumers for Peace is asking Congress to quiz Gen. David Petraeus on alleged war crimes. Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker are to testify next week as their new reports on Iraq are due.

An American attack on Iran could cost the United States the whole army it now has in Iraq, William S. Lind writes in a UPI column. Admiral William “Fox” Fallon’s possibly forced resignation was the last warning the American people are likely to get of an attack on Iran. It does not mean an attack is certain, but the United States could not attack Iran so long as four-star Adm. Fallon was the head of U.S. Central Command, which covers Iraq and Iran. That obstacle is now gone.

A recap of Iraq’s editorial pages, the Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

European and Iraqi parliamentarians meet in Baghdad, Voices of Iraq reports.
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