Iraq to adopt new oil policy bringing in majors: expert

[Barrett808]

DUBAI (AFP) - Iraq is drawing up plans to involve the private sector and foreign oil majors in its state-run oil industry in order to generate funds for rehabilitation and expansion in the sector estimated at 50 billion dollars over 10 years, an Iraqi oil expert said.

The government alone cannot come up with enough money to restore the oil industry, "the power house of the Iraqi economy," which has been left run down by successive wars and years of UN economic sanctions, Sabah Jumah, a former oil ministry director-general, told a conference on the Iraqi oil sector here.

A revived state-owned Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) -- a body abolished in 1987 by ousted president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) -- would have "full ownership and control of its existing producing assets", said Jumah who now runs an oil consultancy in Baghdad.

"Ownership of the key pipeline network for both oil and gas, including export terminals, will (also) remain in state hands for the foreseeable future," he said.

But the private sector will play the big part in "new activity, exploration, development of undeveloped fields, major refinery refurbishment, new refinery construction and petrochemicals ... Joint ventures between International Oil Companies (IOCs) and Iraqi private sector companies will be encouraged."

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040926/ts_afp/iraq_rebuild_oil_040926193651

Ah, the wonders of Bremer's 100 Orders keep coming.

[Cha]

1. Ah, the Oil! So the Oil gets a mention..

Why, one of the main reasons we went there.

Let's see who has the say about the oil..the insurgents or the Oil COs who have signed on to Pump the hell out of Iraq?

[saigon68]

2. Let the looting Begin !!!!

I'm sure Exxon Mobil has its Bib on, waiting to feed at the Trough.

[hatrack]

3. Pay no attention to that Cheney Energy Task Force oil field map!

This is a sovereign government (that means sovereign; you're a sovereign entity so you're regarded as sovereign) making a business decision, and nothing more than that! Nothing to see here! Move along!!

[Strelnikov_]

4. It Has Always Been About Opening Up Nationalized Oil Reserves

for exploitation by the major oil companies. This also explains why Blair went along.

“Today, state-owned companies control the vast majority of the world's oil resources. The major international oil companies control a mere 4 per cent.”

The profit to be made in the era of peak oil is Boosh's ‘precious’.

Crude Dudes
The Toronto Star
Sep. 20, 2004
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1095545411401&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

. . .

Gheit just smiles at the notion that oil wasn't a factor in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He compares Iraq to Russia, which also has large undeveloped oil reserves. But Russia has nuclear weapons. "We can't just go over and ... occupy (Russian) oil fields," says Gheit. "It's a different ballgame." Iraq, however, was defenceless, utterly lacking, ironically, in weapons of mass destruction. And its location, nestled in between Saudi Arabia and Iran, made it an ideal place for an ongoing military presence, from which the U.S. would be able to control the entire Gulf region. Gheit smiles again: "Think of Iraq as a military base with a very large oil reserve underneath .... You can't ask for better than that."

. . .

One reason that regime change in Iraq was seen as offering significant benefits for Big Oil was that it promised to open up a treasure chest which had long been sealed — private ownership of Middle Eastern oil. A small group of major international oil companies once privately owned the oil industries of the Middle East. But that changed in the 1970s when most Middle Eastern countries (and some elsewhere) nationalized their oil industries. Today, state-owned companies control the vast majority of the world's oil resources. The major international oil companies control a mere 4 per cent.

The majors have clearly prospered in the new era, as developers rather than owners, but there's little doubt that they'd prefer to regain ownership of the oil world's Garden of Eden. "(O)ne of the goals of the oil companies and the Western powers is to weaken and/or privatize the world's state oil companies," observes New York-based economist Michael Tanzer, who advises Third World governments on energy issues.

. . .