The American Imperial Plan and the Iraqi Oil Ministry

By
Sarah Meyer
Index Research

The American Imperial Plan is proceeding nicely. Ahmad Chalabi is now controlling the Oil Ministry, whilst not a member of the newly elected government:

"Relations with Washington after falling out with the US administration, was appointed acting oil minister after the incumbent Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum was given leave, officials said on Friday.

His takeover coincided with long lines forming at petrol stations in Baghdad, as words spread that Iraq's largest oil refinery had shut down and a crippling petrol shortage was inevitable.

Chalabi, who supported Uloum for the post when a US-backed government was formed earlier this year, is already the head of the Oil Council, a cabinet-level board, and his influence on Iraq's economic and commodities policy is massive."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/35CADFBB-7D78-4847-85E2-3E6AE80BDC67.htm

Crude Designs

An incisive study by Platform, entitled Crude Designs, focusses on the procedure envisaged to transfer Iraqi oil to a handful of anglo-american oil giants:

"Control of Iraq's future oil wealth is being handed to multinational oil companies through long-term contracts that will cost Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars. Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64% of Iraq’s reserves to foreign oil companies. Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves."

("Crude Designs", by Greg Muttitt of PLATFORM. November 2005)

This is an extremely important document which discusses the historical background and future for oil in Iraq.

The conclusion reached is that:

"under the influence of the US and the UK, powerful politicians in the Iraqi Oil Ministry are pushing to hand all of Iraq's underdeveloped fields to multinational oil companies, to be developed under production sharing agreements."

The date for this plan is in 2006, following the elections.

This fixed agreement would be a disaster for Iraq. They would lose revenue, and would be denied "the ability to regulate or plan its oil industry... foreign companies' operations (would be) immune from future legislation. It's time to get this out of the secret elite drawer and into public discussion", writes Greg Muttitt.

Further References
Siberian Shadowlands Part II
Investigating Imperialism: On The Road to Damascus, 2 December 2005 by William Bowles.

Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in Sussex, England.
See her blog, http://indexresearch.blogspot.com.
Her email address is: sarahmeyer@freedom255.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.