Oil 42

US Marines moved quickly to protect the Iraqi oil ministry in Baghdad, surrounding the complex with razor-sharp barbed wire. US-controlled Iraq should return to the oil market within months. (AFP/EPA/Christophe Simon)

'US Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals

by: Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times

A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.
The disclosure, coming on the eve of the contracts' announcement, is the first confirmation of direct involvement by the Bush administration in deals to open Iraq's oil to commercial development and is likely to stoke criticism.
In their role as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, American government lawyers and private-sector consultants provided template contracts and detailed suggestions on drafting the contracts, advisers and a senior State Department official said.
It is unclear how much influence their work had on the ministry's decisions.
The advisers - who, along with the diplomatic official, spoke on condition of anonymity - say that their involvement was only to help an understaffed Iraqi ministry with technical and legal details of the contracts and that they in no way helped choose which companies got the deals.
Repeated calls to the Oil Ministry's press office for comment were not returned.
At a time of spiraling oil prices, the no-bid contracts, in a country with some of the world's largest untapped fields and potential for vast profits, are a rare prize to the industry. The contracts are expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies.
The deals have been criticized by opponents of the Iraq war, who accuse the Bush administration of working behind the scenes to ensure Western access to Iraqi oil fields even as most other oil-exporting countries have been sharply limiting the roles of international oil companies in development.'

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/article/us-advised-iraqi-ministry-oil-deals

Het Parool berichtte gisteren dat "Irak geeft buitenland kans bij oliewinning." Hoe onwetend kan men zijn om dit soort propaganda blind door te geven. In elk geval heb ik nu toch mijn abonnement maar opgezegd. Voor het Amsterdamse nieuws hoeft het ook niet meer. Dat is al even grote nonsens. En hun Israel-correspondent, Ad Bloemendaal, een zionist die zich voor journalist uitgeeft, schrijft de legerpropaganda letterlijk over.