Britain led rush for black gold in Iraq

[maddezmom]

Britain led rush for black gold in Iraq


The Foreign Office took pains to help UK oil giants influence Iraq's laws, writes Heather Stewart

Sunday March 4, 2007
The Observer


Iraq's huge oil reserves sparked a rush for black gold among foreign powers almost as soon as they were discovered a century ago. Today, nearly four years after the tanks rolled into Baghdad, the question of who should control Iraq's resources is at the heart of efforts to stabilise the country.
Oil production is running at about 2m barrels per day - lower than under the strict oil-for-food regime before 2003. Britain has greeted the country's new oil law, agreed by the Iraqi cabinet after furious debate, as a step toward unifying Iraq and kick-starting its economy. But the law's references to long-term contracts of close to 40 years with oil companies have provoked anger among campaigners and Iraqi trade unions, who argue it will effectively hand control of the country's oil to powerful multinationals.

Investigations carried out for People and Power, a documentary to be aired this week on the al-Jazeera English channel, have uncovered the extent of Britain's involvement in ensuring the oil giants' interests have been represented to the Iraqi government at the highest level throughout the last four years.

Within months of the invasion a Washington-based lobby group called the International Tax and Investment Centre (Itic), which campaigns for business-friendly legislation, gathered financial contributions from oil companies including BP and Shell for a special 'Iraq project'. In autumn 2004 it delivered a report, Petroleum and Iraq's Future: Fiscal Options and Challenges. It concluded that Iraq needed 'aggressive' expansion of oil output, mostly driven by foreign investment and using 'production sharing agreements' giving oil companies exclusive rights to exploit a field in exchange for a share of the profit.

Itic claims that the British ambassador in Baghdad formally handed over its report to the Iraqi finance minister - and that embassy staff helped to identify key Iraqi ministers, who were invited by Itic to a Beirut conference with the oil companies in January 2005. The Foreign Office also had a draft 'code of conduct' for Iraq's oil industry drawn up by a consultant who previously worked for BP.

more:http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2025963,00.html

[ShortnFiery]

1. And Texas Tea?

Couldn't resist. :yoiks: