As I recall, there was an initial plan to use the Iraqi oil to break OPEC's ability to set prices. Cheney overruled this in favor of the international oil companies which wanted to maintain cartel pricing. Bush's Executive Order 13303 (a remarkable document, worth reading) put the full force of the US Government behind legalizing the theft of Iraqi oil. In other words, all existing contracts, international law, etc., were suspended. The French and Russians had invested some $10 or 12 billion in Iraqi oil facilities and they were completely shut out, although we may have restored some rights in an attempt to gain some support. During the initial chaos, Iraqi oil was not even being metered as it was being pumped and exported. As the chaos got worse and Iraqi oil production declined, the scheme became unworkable. I doubt if the big oil companies have any interest in operating in Iraq under current circumstances, but EO 13303 makes clear their intent.
Given their geographic dispersion, I'd expect that oil fields, pipelines, etc., are hard to defend against terrorist attacks. What has happened in Iraq could happen elsewhere crippling world oil supplies. Peter Hollings -----Original Message----- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leigh Meyers Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 12:34 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Wall Street opposed to the war? Doug Henwood wrote: > > Does anyone know more about this? Why would a Shell oil guy want to > keep Iraqi oil in state hands? Goodman, of course, never asked Palast > to elaborate, but it seemed like the most interesting detail in their > duet. . From what I've read, the Iraqi oil infrastructure was (and is moreso now) a shambles, with broken down equipment of 1940s vintage (That's why Cheney's Energy Security Sroup was interested in the oilfield equipment nomenclature, etc.) Perhaps the Oilcos didn't care to, or plan to, make any major expenditures to reap the profits. Leaving the infrastructure in the hands of the Iraqi government is perhaps a calculated risk that between the shiny new Iraqi government's willingness to deal with the oil companies, and rebuilding of the oil infrastructure with Iraqi acquired debt, the profit margins for Shell et al would be higher than if they had the expense of refurbishing the oil infrastructure with their own money. Leigh http://leighm.net/
