No Oil Deals for Iraq?
Monday, August 18, 2008 at 11:50 am
Whoa. Via Juan Cole, here’s something I never expected to read:
The Iraqi government is likely to abandon plans to sign short-term contracts with foreign oil companies, negotiations over which have been halting, a senior U.S. diplomat in Baghdad said on Sunday.
"It appears that on present form (the Iraqi government) probably won’t proceed with most of these or all of them," Charles Ries, coordinator for Iraq’s economic transition at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, told reporters.
"But I think that some of the companies are open to continued discussions even on relationship grounds, and some of the companies … don’t think it’s worth their time."
Apparently the Maliki government, after opening up talks for no-bid contracts to the oil giants, is driving a hard bargain. It puts me in mind of a quote that Carnegie’s Martha Brill Olcott gave me for this piece:
The oil conglomerates "are the toughest negotiators," said Martha Brill Olcott, a former Unocal adviser now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They’ll work out a contract that insulates themselves from political risk. That’s where countries get upset — they paid too great a price to protect Western companies from political risk. That’s a problem: Iraqis might agree to one set of terms now, but you can imagine in 2015, if we’re lucky and it’s stable [in Iraq], then they’ll say, ‘Why the hell did we agree to these terms?’"
It looks like Maliki didn’t want to wait until 2015.
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8 Comments
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 10:20 am
Oil wise, we were better off with Saddam. But ole greedy Dick talked little greedy Bushie into using the U.S. militray like it was their own private army, and look where we are now. “Heck've a job, Dick!”
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 10:51 am
So, China offered Iraq a much better deal than Big Oil did. We invaded Iraq because Big Oil-exon-mobil,bp,cheveron,total,shell-wanted to get back the control of all the oil that they had before Saddam kicked them all out. So, we invaded-per the neocons fantasy about the outcome-and what did we gain. Nothing. Iraq wants all of the invaders out by 2011. They are already starting to rid themselves of the 'awakening councils' and the sunni's in general. Same with the Kurds. WTF have we accomplished for out 4000+ dead and 30,000+ wounded. China and Iran are the winners, and we were played as suckers all the way.The time when the US could tell any country what to do is long past, our power has been destroyed by the current repigs and bush. Big Oil, who want ed Iraq oil, lost everything. Now they focus on Iran and Georgia. The US military has become the enforcement arm of corporate interests. They play, we pay.
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
What will really make these squabbles over Iraqi oil howlingly, hilariously ironic will be the possibility that Saddam so abused the petroleum fields over his time in power that their production rates will be minimal. Think about it, the worlds 2nd or 3rd largest proven reserves will only be able to produce a trickle of oil and most of that locked up by the Chinese.
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
Actually that's pretty good negotiating by Maliki. We here in America need to work harder and faster on hybrid, battery, and hydrogen powered cars so we can tell the Middle East where to go in 7*10 years.
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
Oil wise, we were better off with Saddam. But ole greedy Dick talked little greedy Bushie into using the U.S. militray like it was their own private army, and look where we are now. “Heck've a job, Dick!”
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
So, China offered Iraq a much better deal than Big Oil did. We invaded Iraq because Big Oil-exon-mobil,bp,cheveron,total,shell-wanted to get back the control of all the oil that they had before Saddam kicked them all out. So, we invaded-per the neocons fantasy about the outcome-and what did we gain. Nothing. Iraq wants all of the invaders out by 2011. They are already starting to rid themselves of the 'awakening councils' and the sunni's in general. Same with the Kurds. WTF have we accomplished for our 4000+ dead and 30,000+ wounded. China and Iran are the winners, and we were played as suckers all the way.The time when the US could tell any country what to do is long past, our power has been destroyed by the current repigs and bush. Big Oil, who wanted Iraq oil for free overplayed their hand and lost everything. Now they focus on Iran and Georgia. The US military has become the enforcement arm of corporate interests. They play, we pay.
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 6:40 pm
What will really make these squabbles over Iraqi oil howlingly, hilariously ironic will be the possibility that Saddam so abused the petroleum fields over his time in power that their production rates will be minimal. Think about it, the worlds 2nd or 3rd largest proven reserves will only be able to produce a trickle of oil and most of that locked up by the Chinese.
Comment posted August 28, 2008 @ 7:37 pm
Actually that's pretty good negotiating by Maliki. We here in America need to work harder and faster on hybrid, battery, and hydrogen powered cars so we can tell the Middle East where to go in 7*10 years.
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