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Iraq threw open the world’s third largest oil reserves to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in poll position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.
The move to invite bids for the development of Iraq’s largest oilfields will mark the return of the oil majors, whose cash and technical expertise Iraq needs to restore its oil infrastructure that has been hard hit by sanctions and war.
But any awards to U.S. and British firms are likely to anger opponents of the invasion, who have said the 2003 war was designed to give Western oil companies control over Iraqi oil reserves. U.S. and British officials have denied the charges.
By allowing international firms to help raise output at its major oil fields, the Iraqi government is breaking with the policy of major oil-producing neighbors such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates whose national firms keep tight control of foreign investment in their oil sectors.
Iraq throws open door to foreign oil firms putting British and U.S. companies in poll position
June 30, 2008 10:35 AM
Posted By:Pam
Filed in: Election '08, Eye on the Left, GWB, General Politics, Iraq, Middle East, National News, Our Troops
Posted By:Pam
Filed in: Election '08, Eye on the Left, GWB, General Politics, Iraq, Middle East, National News, Our Troops
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24 Responses to “Iraq throws open door to foreign oil firms putting British and U.S. companies in poll position”
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June 30, 2008 - 03:16 PM on June 30th, 2008
Opponents of the invasion can go to hell.
June 30, 2008 - 03:21 PM on June 30th, 2008
Whatever…just get the darn stuff flowin…
Any thoughtful opponents to the war who a have any sense don’t think it was for oil in the first place, just dumb strategy.
NY-David
June 30, 2008 - 03:30 PM on June 30th, 2008
That’s right. At the most empirical level, yeah. it’s about oil. If the ME didn’t have oil, why would anyone care what happens there?
If Iraq didn’t have so much oil, most people wouldn’t be able to find it on a map. Well, most probably couldn’t anyway, but the point is…
June 30, 2008 - 03:32 PM on June 30th, 2008
The Iraqi Gov’t is smart to bring in foreign investment and experts. Watch, in a couple of years they’ll have the best-performing oil industry in the region.
June 30, 2008 - 04:12 PM on June 30th, 2008
I think that part of it was oil, but not in the way that some on the left claimed, nor was it just just for the U.S.. It was a matter of protecting a huge oil reserve that the world is/was in need of. We didn’t go there to take over oil fields.
I concur with you Robert.
June 30, 2008 - 05:33 PM on June 30th, 2008
“Opponents of the invasion can go to hell.”
————————-
LOL…yeah.
That’s what sore losers always say to the winning team.
June 30, 2008 - 05:37 PM on June 30th, 2008
6, SFL, Hello, LOSER!!!
June 30, 2008 - 05:59 PM on June 30th, 2008
“I think that part of it was oil, but not in the way that some on the left claimed, nor was it just just for the U.S..”
—————–
Regardless of what/who it’s used for, oil is NOT worth more than human blood.
Those who think otherwise need to get their priorities straight.
This war was unnecessary. Real people have died. Lots.
Let’s be honest here; the holy-grail-long-term-goal for our 5+ years of military occupation in Iraq is a stable environment for Oil to be expolited, I’m sorry…exported, to the West (mainly the US).
We want to see a return on our investment.
Sick, IMHO.
June 30, 2008 - 06:03 PM on June 30th, 2008
“6, SFL, Hello, LOSER!!!”
———————
Do you teach your young daughter to talk to other people like that?
June 30, 2008 - 06:12 PM on June 30th, 2008
The US/Iraq is winning so what is it that you are trying to say?
Yes SFL, even oil is sometimes worth some bloodshed.
June 30, 2008 - 06:27 PM on June 30th, 2008
“The US/Iraq is winning so what is it that you are trying to say?”
——————
There is no “winning” the Iraq war; a war that the vast majority here in the US and abroad believes should never had been waged in the first place.
“Victory” in Iraq is a fantasy that the few remaining NeoCons still hold onto.
Hell…here at home, the War has been political suicide - you lost your congressional majority and you will lose the White House because of your “victory” in Iraq.
June 30, 2008 - 06:27 PM on June 30th, 2008
“Yes SFL, even oil is sometimes worth some bloodshed.”
————–
I’m sorry you feel that way.
Your children are less important to you than your need for oil.
Wow.
June 30, 2008 - 06:44 PM on June 30th, 2008
#6 SFL I think you have it backwards. You see, the opponents of the invasion lost. The invasion did take place.
June 30, 2008 - 07:28 PM on June 30th, 2008
No, on the contrary SFL, some children’s survival depends on oil, and this isn’t all about the United States Of America. How many farmers depend on the oil to keep the equipment running? How many truckers depend on the oil to deliver the food? Not everything is about the automobile and wasteful consumption.
BTW- Obama isn’t discussing the war for a very good reason..
June 30, 2008 - 08:02 PM on June 30th, 2008
“The invasion did take place.”
————–
Yup, it sure did. And look at what it did to your party, your president, our pocketbook and our country.
(!)
Remember the Pottery Barn Rule:
You break it, you own it.
June 30, 2008 - 08:12 PM on June 30th, 2008
“…some children’s survival depends on oil”
———–
And apparently you and your ideological ilk are saying OUR survival depends on THEIR death, the innocents of war.
…I rebuke that.
June 30, 2008 - 08:29 PM on June 30th, 2008
618000 Americans died in the Civil War, was it really worth it?
June 30, 2008 - 08:50 PM on June 30th, 2008
Is it better to lose a few thousand in a war that had a number of objectives, including the securing of substantial oil fields to insure the free flow of oil at fair market prices or to allow millions to starve to death for want of the food that oil will help produce? What do you think goes into the tractors used to plow the fields, plant the seeds, run the irrigation equipment and then harvest, process and transport those crops?
Unless you can understand that fuel is necessary to feed the world, don’t come whining to me about anyone starving to death in the third world.
June 30, 2008 - 10:12 PM on June 30th, 2008
Oil is necessary for our modern society. Oil goes into far more than fuel. Plastics, chemicals, the uses are almost endless. I agree that oil use should and must be phased out for transportation and power generation.
But the other needs for it are endless and are not going away.
July 1, 2008 - 12:28 AM on July 1st, 2008
OK, Sports fans. Strictly speaking, as a military campaign, we’ve been winning since Day One, some days more then others. There is still an incredibly lot that needs to go right for us to get out. Last remarks I heard about what is necessary for us to leave would be a Western-facing government. My quandry is what if they don’t want a Western-leaning government? What if the Iraqi’s want a conservative, religious-based, Islamic-central government that hates the West?
No where in Bush or Cheney’s pre-war text did it say that we were going in to support our oil demand. We went in to get rid of a bad guy that was known to kill thousands of his own people. About the same time we were planning Iraq, over 200,000 people were killed in violence in the Central African Republic. This barely made the media. My sense is that if The Congo sat on a lot of oil, we’d have been there instead.
NY-David
July 1, 2008 - 05:09 AM on July 1st, 2008
NY-David,
I don’t think anyone is expecting a democracy based on the USA. If the Iraqis want a government that hates us, then they will have it, but I highly doubt you will see that. The USA is a model, but by no means the only way to run a democracy.
The oil sector in Congo is the primary driver of the economy, accounting for around 90 percent of total export revenues.
July 2, 2008 - 12:27 AM on July 2nd, 2008
I thought we went to Iraq as part of the war on terrorism?
July 2, 2008 - 08:44 AM on July 2nd, 2008
Eddy E. We did for a number of reasons. Saddam was paying the families of suicide bombers in Israel. He was hosting terrorist training camps. He was exploiting the oil for food program to the tune of Billions. He had a significant bio and chemical weapons program ready to go. He was murdering dissidents in his country at the rate of about 150,000 a year. He bragged of his nuclear program and all intelligence pointed that way and last but not least we chose the battleground to fight al queda in, not them.
July 2, 2008 - 10:24 AM on July 2nd, 2008
I still haven’t seen any evidence that al Queda in Iraq is the same that downed the WTC. They were in Afghanistan (actually all over). However, Sadam’s record of sponsoring terrorism in Israel was widely held as well as intimidation tactics on his own people.
NY-David