What Oil Companies Will Get in Iraq For All Those Dead And Dismembered People

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080620/wl_time/whatoilcompanieswillgetiniraq

By BY VIVIENNE WALT/PARIS
Fri Jun 20, 4:40 AM ET

After five grueling years of war, Iraq's most cherished prize - its mammoth hydrocarbon reserves - might finally be within reach of Western oil companies. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP appear set to win no-bid contracts allowing them to work in some of Iraq's rich oil fields. The negotiations between Iraqi officials and those companies, first reported in Thursday's New York Times, are for "technical support agreements" for two years and renewable for a third, rather than for lucrative contracts to pump oil out of the ground. Under the envisaged deals, the companies would help Iraqi oil managers overhaul decrepit operations and modernize their equipment in the hope of boosting Iraq's output by about 500,000 barrels a day - an increase of nearly 20% over the best days the Iraqi industry has had since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. At the current sky-high oil prices, that could bring in billions more every week for the Iraq government, which sorely needs funds to rebuild the country. And the companies, which had for decades been partners in the Iraq Petroleum Corporation before Saddam Hussein nationalized the industry, would tentatively return to some of the biggest oil fields on the planet. Such arrangements, the corporations hope, will position them to seek long-term access to proven reserves that are second only to Saudi Arabia's.

[IDemo]

1. Mission Accomplished

[OwnedByFerrets]

2. And guess who must stay there and protect those

corporations interests?? The US military. It doesn't take a large brain to figure out that these corporations must be protected from the "turrist". Thus, forever military bases and a foreign military presence in a country that doesn't want us there.

www.wearableartnow.com

[stillcool]

3. We've been here before..

it will be interesting to see how this pans out for these oil companies.. if this deal actually goes through, and if it does, will they be able to do anything in such a hostile region? It's ironic that they are 'skirting the law' to get their foot in the door. Sounds so American.