Big Oil Ready To Bid On Iraqi Oil Fields

Major international oil and gas companies have flown in representatives to Baghdad in preparation for tomorrow's bidding on Iraq's decadent oil fields, the country's first major tender since 2003. Thirty-two foreign firms, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell, are competing for six of Iraq's largest oil fields and two gas fields, which could hold more than 115 billion barrels of oil. Major oil companies have not serviced Iraq's oil fields in 30 years, after former President Saddam Hussein threw them out of the country when the industry was nationalized. Oil companies could win access to one of the world's largest remaining untapped reserves, but they also face a climate fraught with logistical and hostile concerns.

According to Reuters, many firms are taking extra precautions to protect their investments. For example, the companies will employ service companies and contractors to minimize their exposure to risk.

They will bypass the dangerous streets of Baghdad by building airstrips near remote oil sites and flying their personnel in and out of the country from there. "Security is a huge expense but then at big oil companies we are used to that. We work in some difficult places, like Nigeria. I would estimate security will add 10-15 percent to the project," said a senior executive from an international oil company planning to bid but unauthorised to speak publicly.

Kurds, who have signed oil deals with firms that Baghdad has rejected as illegal, have in turn condemned the central government's contracts for fields in the disputed Kirkuk region.

Reuters also reports that earning the trust of the Iraqi people will be one of the most important challenges the oil companies must overcome. The news organization quotes Hugh McManners, a spokesman for the security firm Erinys, that many Iraqis " believe foreign firms will plunder Iraq's oil." Erinys was hired by the U.S. government in 2003 to protect Iraq's oil infrastructure.

The Wall Street Journal reports the oil field contracts could be worth billions of dollars, and the Iraqi government must approve of the 20-year service contracts before drilling can commence.

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Comments

[WindySailor]

My expectation - the bulk of the contracts will go to European oil companies, such as BP, Shell, Total, and NOT to U.S. companies. The Texas oil tagteam (Bush and Cheney) will have gambled and lost.

[TJCole]

"The games afoot..!"

[Jon Mohrbacher]

From what I understand, the Iraqi parliament--the only semi-operative part of their democracy--has tried but failed to oppose this denationalization of their oil industry.

No doubt we're gonna have a sick and twisted future in Iraq in resisting their attempts to regain control of their oil wealth. Great.

[underoath]

Why is this not front page?

[Brett1981]

The real reason Cheney doesn't want the troops leaving just yet.

[Layman23]

You can say that again !

[DavidATolucaLake]

Mission Accomplished

Considering this was the mission, it was.

[max08]

They couldn't have done this six years ago and save all those lives and out national treasury?

[DavidATolucaLake]

Youre not getting it, transfering cash from the United States Treasury to the bank accounts of defense/military contractors and other mercenary for profit groups was the purpose, as well as the oil fields themselves.

It was a for profit venture.

Getting paid to ramp up produciton to go to war.
Getting paid to rebuild that which was destroyed.
Getting paid decades after, by gaining the rights to drill in Iraq.

Mission Accomplished. And it was.

[DavidATolucaLake]

Remember, it was not a WAR FOR OIL??

Oh no!!
Except the fact that Paul Bremmer and the United States changed the Iraqi state system and made it now legal for foreign companies to drill there. AND take the profits with them.

Of course they will pay the usual bribes of to the goverment, which the citizens of the country will never see any of those funds. Which will create even more poverty, as it usually does in commodity driven economies around the world that are changed from nationalized to privatized by western corporations.

[Ken Willis]

So on the same day US troops begin to withdraw from urban areas in Iraq, the Iraqi oil fields go up for international bidding. Very interesting. The necons seem to have won the first round of the Resource Wars. Instead of the national oil of Iraq going to the Iraqi people it will go to profit foriegn entities. US and European oligarchs will continue to buy our elected leaders with this money to maintain the status quo. Oh yea, and gas will be $3.95 a gallon by mid July. Anybody ready for a revolution yet.

[davidwayneosedach]

This is very risky business. The government could collapse or changeover - at a moment's notice.

[Newsmonger]

There you go again! Big Oil coming to town for the spoils just as the US military who did the heavy lifting are preparing to leave and withdraw to the green zone in matter of days, thus preparing for their eventual return home....

[1dogs2]

Oh dear. All of Cheney's and the oil companies' carefully laid plans gone awry.