Earth Equity News

Western Oil Giants Securing No-Bid 'Foothold' in Iraqi Oil Fields. By Andrew E. Kramer, NYTimes, June 19, 2008. "Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations... on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession... [when] Saddam Hussein rose to power. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP -- the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company -- along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields... The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations... There was suspicion... that the U.S. had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract... It is not clear what role the U.S. played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq's Oil Ministry."