took this from another site

June 23, 2008
AT LAST, SOME TRUTH ABOUT IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

PARIS - After a sea of lies and a tsunami of propaganda, the ugly truth behind the Iraq and Afghanistan wars finally emerged into full view this week.

Four major western oil companies, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP and Total, are about to sign US-brokered no-bid contracts with the US-installed Baghdad regime to begin exploiting Iraq’s oil fields. Saddam Hussein had kicked these firms out three decades ago when he nationalized Iraq’s foreign-owned oil industry for the benefit of Iraq’s national development. The Baghdad regime is turning back the clock.

This agreement comes as talks are continuing between the Washington and its Baghdad client regime over future US basing rights in Iraq. After some face-saving Iraqi objections, it is expected that Baghdad will sign a compact with Washington giving US forces control of Iraq and its air space in a manner very similar to Great Britain’s colonial arrangement with Iraq.

Interestingly, the same oil companies that used to exploit Iraq when it was a British colony are now returning. As former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently admitted, the Iraq war was all about oil. VP Dick Cheney stated in 2003 that the invasion of Iraq was about oil, and for the sake of Israel.

Meanwhile, according to Pakistani and Indian sources, Afghanistan just signed a major deal to launch a long-planned, 1680 km long pipeline project expected to cost $ 8 billion. If completed, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) will export gas and, later, oil from the Caspian Basin to Pakistan’s coast where tankers will transport it to the west.

The Caspian Basin located under the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakkstan, holds an estimated 300 trillion cubic feet of gas and 100-200 billion barrels of oil. Securing the world’s last remaining known energy Eldorado is strategic priority for the western powers. China can only look on with envy.

But there are only two practical ways to get gas and oil out of land-locked Central Asia to the sea: through Iran, or through Afghanistan to Pakistan. For Washington, Iran is tabu. That leaves Pakistan, but to get there, the planned pipeline must cross western Afghanistan, including the cities of Herat and Kandahar.

In 1998, the Afghan anti-Communist movement Taliban and a western oil consortium led by the US firm Unocal signed a major pipeline deal. Unocal lavished money and attention on Taliban, flew a senior delegation to Texas, and also hired an minor Afghan official, one Hamid Karzai.

Enter Osama bin Laden. He advised the unworldly Taliban leaders to reject the US deal and got them to accept a better offer from an Argentine consortium, Bridas. Washington was furious and, according to some accounts, threatened Taliban with war.

In early 2001, six or seven months before 9/11, Washington made the decision to invade Afghanistan, overthrow Taliban, and install a client regime that would build the energy pipelines. But Washington still kept up sending money to Taliban until four months before 9/11 in an effort to keep it `on side’ for possible use in a war or strikes against Iran.

The 9/11 attacks, about which Taliban knew nothing, supplied the pretext to invade Afghanistan. The initial US operation had the legitimate objective of wiping out Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. But after its 300 members fled to Pakistan, the US stayed on, built bases – which just happened to be adjacent to the planned pipeline route – and installed former Unocal `consultant’ Hamid Karzai as leader.

Washington disguised its energy geopolitics by claiming the Afghan occupation was to fight `Islamic terrorism,’ liberate women, build schools, and promote democracy. Ironically, the Soviets made exactly the same claims when they occupied Afghanistan from 1979-1989. The cover story for Iraq was weapons of mass destruction, Saddam’s supposed links to 9/11, and promoting democracy.

Work will begin on the TAPI once Taliban forces are cleared from the pipeline route by US, Canadian and NATO forces. As American analyst Kevin Phillips writes, the US military and its allies have become an `energy protection force.’

From Washington’s viewpoint, the TAPI deal has the added benefit of scuttling another proposed pipeline project that would have delivered Iranian gas and oil to Pakistan and India.

India’s energy needs are expected to triple over the next decade to 8 billion barrels of oil and 80 million cubic meters of gas daily. Delhi, which has its own designs on Afghanistan and has been stirring the pot there, is cock-a-hoop over the new pipeline plan. Russia, by contrast, is grumpy, having hoped to monopolize Central Asian energy exports.

Energy is more important than blood in our modern world. The US is a great power with massive energy needs. Domination of oil is a pillar of America’s world power. Afghanistan and Iraq are all about control of oil.


copyright Eric S. Margolis 2008

At least we'll be getting something out of it, no?

Not to mention it'll give the locals something to do other than blow each other up.

As Green Habit and SD already pointed...thats quite good.

If you're gonna fight a war for oil, you should at least get the oil out of the deal.

Is this for fucking real? The development of Iraq? Maybe the development of Baghdad and Saddams personal palaces, but the development of Iraq? A nation that under Saddam saw growth, and then rapid deterioration well beyond the point of which he inhereted the nation? Privitization is turning back the clock. Wow. Just awe inspiring crap. Amazing, everyone avoided the topic of conversation when Indian and Chinese oil firms were awarded contracts for years before the big four. Now the big four get some, and this horribly bias bullshit proliferates like mad.

I thought you vehemently disagreed when people call the Iraq War a war for oil?

Iraq fails to ink deals with global oil majors

Iraq said on Monday that it had failed to sign technical support deals with global oil majors hoping to cash in on boosting the war-torn country's extensive but underexploited oilfields.
Iraq is still negotiating with Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total, and a consortium of other smaller oil companies, to develop six oil blocks and two gas fields, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told a press briefing.

"We did not finalise any agreement with them because they refused to offer consultancy based on fees as they wanted a share of the oil," he said.

"The TSAs (technical support agreements) are only simple consultancy contracts to help us raise the production during the interim period" before the ministry enters into long-term contracts to develop the oil and gas fields.

The widely expected arrangement was to pave the way for global energy giants to return to Iraq 36 years after Saddam Hussein threw them out, and was seen as a first step to access the earth's third largest proven crude reserves.


Last week, oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told AFP that it would sign

the support contracts on Monday and award longer-term deals to 41 other energy companies.

"We chose 35 companies of international standard, according to their finances, environment and experience, and we granted them permission to extract oil," Jihad said.

Six other state-owned oil firms from Algeria, Angola, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam have also been selected to compete for extraction deals.

Iraq wants to ramp up output by 500,000 barrels per day from the current average production of 2.5 million bpd, about equal to the amount being pumped before the US-led invasion in March 2003.

However, political infighting over how oil revenues should be shared has slowed the process.

Crucially, the passing of the hydrocarbon law that aims to govern profit-sharing as well as foreign agreements has yet to be passed by the nation's parliament.

Exports of 2.11 million bpd currently form the bulk of the war-torn nation's revenues, and the oil ministry is keen to raise capacity over the next five years to 4.5 million bpd.

Iraq has crude reserves estimated at 115 billion barrels but it is sorely lacking in high-tech infrastructure following years of crippling UN sanctions after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein.

Shahristani stressed that Iraq needed the services of experienced companies to realise the potential of its huge crude reserves but added that it was not ready to do so at any price.

"It is not possible for Iraq which has large oil reserves to stay at the current level of production. Iraq should be the second or the third source of oil exportation," the minister said.

"We went to these global companies and asked them to offer us consultancy but they will have no privileges or will not get a share of oil."

Shahristani said his ministry had invited tenders from the 41 selected foreign firms to enter into long-term services agreements for which the contracts would be signed next year.

The companies have been told to present their offers by April 2009, he said, adding the deals would be signed later in June.

"It is a service contract and not a production-sharing contract," the minister said.

Shahristani said Iraq would not enter into production-sharing contracts with any energy major, while service arrangements for overseas firms would require locals partners.

"We think there is no need to share Iraq's oil with anybody," the minister said, adding the final offers of the companies would have to be approved by the cabinet.

Those companies that offered higher revenues for the ministry would be preferred in awarding the services contracts, Shahristani said.

*Tongue planted firmly in cheek*

All the same, what is better? Clusterfuck Iraq with oil flowing into the markets, or clusterfuck Iraq without oil flowing into the markets?

What's better? Absolutely horrible hackneyed pieces written by ametuers trying to paint a war for oil and rewarding the "big four" western oil companies.

the title I posted "its the crude, dude" is a pretty interesting book. written by a canadian newspaper columnist.

"That battle has actually been raging for decades. Once tightly controlled by Big Oil, most of the world's oil reserves have been taken over by nationalistic regimes in the Middle East. Ever since those regimes imposed an oil embargo on the United States in the mid-1970s, Washington has been determined to regain control over oil--by force if necessary. With China's recent emergence as a voracious oil consumer, there soon won't be enough oil left to fuel two superpowers."


anyways, if i remember correctly it goes on to say in the book how in the lead up to the war, the big american companies were being shut out of any contracts and in their place were french, german, russian, chinese companies. and iraq being the last huge easily pumped oil field, the american government couldn't let those contracts slip out of their hands.