Iraq to auction vast oilfields despite bomb attacks

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The threat of bombs and violence will compete with the lure of some of the world's most promising oilfields when oil majors fly into Baghdad this week to bid in Iraq's second auction of oil contracts since the U.S. invasion.

The risks, nearly seven years after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein, were on display on Tuesday when a series of car bombs killed 112 people in the capital, rattling the windows of the Oil Ministry where the Dec. 11-12 auction will be held.

...

The bulk of the planet's top oil companies, including Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), BP (BP.L), Chevron (CVX.N) and Total (TOTF.PA) will compete for the deals -- if executives come despite Tuesday's bombings.

"The vastness of its undeveloped reserves, its nine supergiants, among the lowest extraction costs in the world at $2 per barrel, and the fairly decent deal being offered by the government of Iraq -- it's difficult to overstate the attractiveness of these fields for oil companies," said Evan Pressman, a partner at Iraq-focused research firm Ergo.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGEE5B70D220091208?type=marketsNews

[pjt7]

1. Did any of the Iraqi Ministry employees die

in the attack today? Or was it just people in the streets, near the buildings?

I'd be shitting in my pants, waiting for an attack, if I was particpating in the Baghdad Oil Bidding planned to take place this weekend.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I have my suspicions that no bomb will go off anywhere near the Ministry building.

They always seem to go off in locations and in time to justify American policy.

[Wilms]

7. Yes. And to carry out that policy. "Keep the oil in the ground. Keep prices high."

Bingo, dixiegrrrrl.

[Andronex]

2. Insecurity and violence weakens the Iraq government...

and justifies long term foreign military occupation, it guarantees continued western interests in the region...

[lapfog_1]

4. And thus marks not the end, but the beginning of the end

of the Iraq war. Mission accomplished. Oil leases auctioned.

[hunter]

5. My guess is that Iraq oil reserves are largely fabricated.

Not so much as the Bush Administration's entirely fabricated "Weapons of Mass Destruction," but probably equivalent to describing Saddam Hussein's clumsy flying leaf blowers to our own predator drones and hellfire missiles.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQ-1_Predator

[New Dawn]

6. And this was why the US illegally invaded Iraq in the first place: to steal their oil.

[Amonester]

8. And that's why the U.S. Taxpayers STILL have to pay...

for these big oil corporations having that 'amusing' (for them, executives...) bidding parties...

So our soldiers die, or get maimed beyond any recovery, and people, including children, get blown up out the windows, but the money guys (who buy all the politicians they want) want to have their partytime there anyway! (And these executives sure don't want to pay any taxes.)

And the taxpayers' grandchildren will still pay them the interests of the National Debt for an eternity!!

Where are the guilotines??