Oil Companies Get Their Greedy Hands In The Iraqi Door

If anything brought a smile to George Bush's face yesterday, it would be the deal made in Iraq over oil and not his useless endorsement of presumptive nominee John McCain. Bush is only endorsing him because he won enough delegates, what Bush truly cares about is profits for his oil buddies/campaign contributors. Although the technical support agreement isn't all that they hoped for, it is definitely seen as a positive move in the quest for Iraqi oil.

From The International Herald Tribune:

Speaking to reporters as he arrived for a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, al-Shahristani said the Oil Ministry was still working on the compensation details with the Development Fund of Iraq, controlled by the U.S. and the U.N.

According to the Oil Ministry official, BP will submit a proposal for the Rumaila oil field, Chevron for West Qurna stage 1, Exxon for Zubair, and Shell for Missan and Kirkuk.

Iraq's average production was 2.4 million barrels per day in January while exports stood at an average of 1.92 million barrels per day. December's exports averaged 1.81 million barrels per day.

In dire need of expertise from international oil companies to achieve the Oil Ministry's target of 3 million barrels per day by the end of 2008, Iraq has been relying on a Saddam Hussein-era natural resources law until Parliament approves a new oil law to regulate the international oil companies' work and share Iraq's oil resources among the country's Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Now this all sounds good in theory and our pResident can definitely try and use this to show 'progress' in Iraq, but reality tends to differ from White House press releases. These oil fields can not be operated from within the relatively safe Green Zone. Men must go out and operate equipment to drill oil from the ground and move it to port to be brought to market. There are many factors that exist in the Iraqi desert that could preclude said oil from making it to the preferred destination. Now that al-Qaeda and insurgent groups know that their oil will go into western hands, some may be angered enough to sabotage operations (and have already). So we'll see just how great these technical support agreements actually are.

Oh Sweet Crudey Benchmarks,

Most of the benchmarks set to deem the progress in Iraq have not even come close being met. Of course George thinks we are kicking ass, but there is one benchmark he cares deeply about. It has something to do with Texas Tea, Black Gold....you get the point. Well today was not a good day for our glorious leader. The latest round of talks on the Iraqi oil laws fell apart, and Bush's pals still do not have a firm system to rape Iraq of its sweet crude.

From The New York Times:

“This has been like a roller coaster,” said Mr. Salih, who is Kurdish. “There were occasions where we seemed to be there, where we seemed to have closure, only to fail at that.”

“Given the seriousness of the issue, I don’t want to create false expectations, but I can say there is serious effort to bring this to closure,” he said.

The legislation has already been presented to the Iraqi Parliament, which has been unable to take virtually any action on it for months. Contributing to the dispute is the decision by the Kurds to begin signing contracts with international oil companies before the federal law is passed. The most recent instance, announced last week on a Kurdish government Web site, was an oil exploration contract with the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas.

The Sunni Arabs who removed their support for the deal did so, in part, because of a contract the Kurdish government signed earlier with a company based in the United Arab Emirates, Dana Gas, to develop gas reserves.

All sides in Iraq continue to bicker over their piece of the pie. Yet what they might not want to mention is that there is also a specific game to be played that keeps the oil out of the hands of Multi-national Corporations that will stop at nothing to get the best deal for themselves without giving much back to the Iraqis.

Without the deal however, no one is going to make any money. As long as the Sunnis, Shias and Kurds hate each other with the passion only a civil war can produce, we aren't going to see much in the way of progress.