Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back

[heyheybooboo]

I know I'm supposed to comment but what can be said?

Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP and Chevron are movin' in to establish their 'permanent bases' in Iraq without benefit of competitive bidding. Gettin' it done before election season rolls around (in both the US and Iraq).

There is no shame in the Bush-Cheney Crime Family. They made their bed in Iraq and they're sleeping with Big Oil. Grease a few palms while the dead bodies are still warm before they get tossed to the curb in the 2008 elections.

Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back

Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.

There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq?s Oil Ministry.

Sensitive to the appearance that they were profiting from the war and already under pressure because of record high oil prices, senior officials of two of the companies, speaking only on the condition that they not be identified, said they were helping Iraq rebuild its decrepit oil industry.

For an industry being frozen out of new ventures in the world?s dominant oil-producing countries, from Russia to Venezuela, Iraq offers a rare and prized opportunity.

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