Naah! Of course it wasn't about the oil...

Yep, ok, so this is a book promo, right?

How about this then?

Iraq expects oil exports to rise by about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) daily by January, when a new government is elected with authority to decide on foreign involvement in the sector, the head of Iraq's Energy Council said recently.

Ahmad Chalabi, who has emerged as a key player in a transition government formed earlier this year despite falling out with Washington, said he still favoured giving priority to the US and British firms in developing Iraq's oil reserves, the world's third-largest after Saudi Arabia and Canada. “We expect 1.8 million bpd by January,” he said...

Funny that name should crop up...

Chalabi has previously said that Iraq’s political leaders realised that they could not afford to politicise the oil industry, and that production decisions had to involve the central government, although regional governments would autonomously negotiate with foreign companies.

“The oil sector will stay out of political disputes, (because) Iraqi officials recognise that it is the lifeline of the economy. The cabinet has already decided to allow foreign majority share ownership of Iraqi banks and foreign investment and ownership in downstream oil, including refineries,” he said.

Uh-huh!

Here is another -

Thamir al-Ghadban, in an interview to the state-run daily al-Sabah published Tuesday, pointed to the "necessity of privatising the Iraqi oil sector, particularly in the area of services such as transport, laying pipelines, building facilities and supplying equipment".

Ghadban, who was minister of oil in the transitional Iraqi government that was replaced after the January elections, also urged his country "to enter into partnerships with foreign companies in the investment sector and for building refineries and importing petroleum derivatives".

...however you might interpret that!

Zebari said that huge oil exploration contracts lost by Russia in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule might be reviewed.

"Naturally the Iraqi leadership carries responsibility for contracts signed in the time of Saddam Hussein," he told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In 1997, the Russian oil company Lukoil won the rights to explore oil deposits at the West Qurna-2 field, one of Iraq's most promising fields.

The contracts were later annulled by Iraq...

Now, there IS a thorn in the foot for Halliburton. I wonder what will become of that little idea. I think not a great deal. Someone will be told to sit down and shuddup if he wants to keep his job.

This observation deserves an acknowledgement as well -

Leonard Doyle, Foreign Editor

On the eve of the war in Iraq, there was a shocking moment of clarity in the Commons when Jack Straw revealed that when it was all over, France and Germany would not be allowed to "get their snouts in the trough".

This public slap in the face to Britain's biggest EU partners gave an insight into what was really concentrating US and British minds. Having constructed a tortuous case for war over Iraq's lack of co-operation with the UN security Council, plans were being laid for post-Saddam Iraq excluding non-coalition countries.

Straw's remarks revealed the focused on Iraqs oil. The World's four oil giants (BP, Exxon, Chevron and Shell) , have been desperate to get back into Iraq, since being booted out in the nationalisation of 1972.
...
Iraq's new constitution - practically written by US and Foreign office advisors, guarantees a major role for foreign companies. Production Sharing Agreements would hand over control of dozens of oil fields, like the gian Majnoon .

After next month's elections, when a new Iraqi government takes over and contracts are signed it will become clearer how much oil was part of London and Washington's pre-war plans.

Well, we will see about that, but there is a seam still running...

Final few stitches

...For months, the State Department denied the existence of this 323-page document ...

*****

...The switch to an OPEC-friendly policy for Iraq was driven by Dick Cheney himself. "The person who is most influential in running American energy policy is the Vice President," who, said the insider, "thinks that security begins by . . . letting prices follow wherever they may."

*****
TWO AND A HALF YEARS AND $202 BILLION into the war in Iraq, the United States has at least one significant new asset to show for it: effective membership, through our control of Iraq's energy policy, in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Arab-dominated oil cartel.

The US, a proxy member of OPEC?

I gotta go think this through...