*Big Oil deals with Baghdad are the target
*As are Hunt Oil and other KRG deals signed with U.S. firms
*Plus, Iraq to establish Maysan oil company
*And, Alive in Baghdad
U.S. congressional leaders are pressing the Bush administration to block deals to be signed between the Iraqi federal government and the world’s largest oil companies and to cancel deals between the Iraqi Kurdish region and smaller U.S. oil firms.
Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., John Kerry, D-Mass., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., want the United States to dam negotiations on contracts the senators claim will, in part, further sectarian fighting.
United Press International’s Ben Lando has also obtained a letter from Senate Committee on Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., to President Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley, asking the administration to press Hunt Oil and other U.S. companies to cancel their oil deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry is negotiating two-year, technical support contracts — also being called technical service contracts — with Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, BHP Billiton and a consortium led by Anadarko. The deals, the scope and price of which have not been made public, are presumed to be worth $500 million each and provide technology, training and equipment to six key oil fields in Iraq, according to past ministry statements.
Each field would increase production by 100,000 barrels per day. The companies would likely not send any workers to Iraq. Shell, BP, Exxon and Total were part of the Iraq Petroleum Co., which controlled Iraq’s oil sector for decades before being kicked out in the 1960s and 1970s.
“We can confirm that negotiations between Shell and representatives of the Ministry of Oil regarding technical service agreements are ongoing. However, we regard further details as confidential,” said Shell spokesman Adam Newton, adding the company has no comment on the senators’ demands.
“If the Iraqi government decides it wants international oil companies to partner with them in developing their resources, ExxonMobil would be interested in participating,” said Exxon Manager of Upstream Media Relations L.A. D’Eramo. “Consistent with our long-standing global business strategy, ExxonMobil would pursue business opportunities as they arise in Iraq, just as we would in other countries in which we are permitted to operate. With that noted, at this time it would be premature to discuss specifics about any potential opportunity with Iraq.”
“We have a memorandum of understanding with the Iraqi government whereby we have provided free technical advice,” said Anadarko Manager of External Communications John Christiansen. “However, we do not intend to pursue additional interests at this time.”
The other companies couldn’t be reached or couldn’t provide comments before the article was published.
CLICK HERE for the entire must read article.
From other media:
“Iraq is a sovereign country, and it can make decisions based on how it feels that it wants to move forward in its development of its oil resources,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, Anne Flaherty reports for The Associated Press. “And if that means that our companies here in the United States can compete and win business, then that’s for them and the Iraqis to decide,” Perino added. “But I don’t think the federal government of the United States needs to get involved.”
Iraq’s oil ministry has finished negotiations with oil majors on six short-term oil service contracts and hopes to sign the deals during the next month, Ahmed Rasheed reports for Reuters.
Iraq’s Cabinet has decided to establish a new oil state-owned company to manage and develop massive oil and gas resources in the southern oil-rich province of Maysan, the oil minister said Tuesday, AP reports. The announcement was made as government forces are cracking down on Shiite militias in the Maysan capital of Amarah, promising to boost the quality of life there now that the gunmen no longer rule the streets. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the Maysan Oil and Gas Commission would be split off from the Basra-based Southern Oil Company and reorganized as an independent company.
Alive in Baghdad: Brigadier General Discusses Triangle of Death
Call me suspicious, but it sounds like the Democrat Congress is in panic mode to try and stop Iraq from increasing oil exports so that Iraq will not be able to build on its huge success already accomplished THANKS TO THE McCAIN AND BUSH TROOP SURGE. The Democrats already have treasonous egg all over their faces from trying to force America into a unilateral defeat in Iraq to Al-Quaeda. So somehow their lame actions to try and cover up their treason don’t surprise me.
I have longsinced ceased to be surprised by the economic ignorance and political cupidity of the American congress, but the recent shenanigans concerning the price of crude (can you just imagine congressmen wanting to sue Opec to force them to reduce the price of crude when these same political fakes are the ones that will not allow us to drill our own vast shorelines and Alaskan plains), and now this latest: leading Democrats wanting the President to block new oil deals between American companies and Iraq and to nullify international contracts that have already been inked and work started (as if the President has such authority) represent new lows, or perhaps highs, in congressional stupidity. And these guys recommend these absurdities with a straight face!
Save “traitor” for when it really counts. You’re diluting its impact to score cheap, vacuous points.
Iraq’s (relative) tranquility is not due solely, or even mainly, to The Surge:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080701faresponse87413/colin-h-kahl-william-e-odom/when-to-leave-iraq.html
To the first poster: you’re on crack buddy: The fact that major oil corporations have been aggressively trying to make deals in Iraq is idiotic. This reinforces the critics position, that this war IS about oil. The war is all a lie: Its like breaking into a kitchen and stealing an apple pie- then claiming it wasn’t about the pie- it was to change a lightbulb that was flickering- but we’ll keep the pie anyway- its almost laughable.
The US leaders are a bunch of aggressive little boys pretending to be grown men. You’d have to be an idiot to believe them, and it’s not out fault their mother’s didn’t love them. There is no truth in their souls. They are worse than liars.