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Here's a thought experiment: Assume that Iraq's democratic government declared it was nationalizing its oil industry while excluding American companies from the country. How do you think U.S. politicians would react? With angry cries of "ingratitude" and "this is what Americans died for"? Of course they would, led no doubt by that critic for all reasons, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. So it is passing strange that Mr. Schumer and other Senators are now assailing Iraq precisely because it is opening up to foreign oil companies, especially to U.S. majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron. For some American pols,...

Independence Day and The Politics of Oil Matt Towery Oil and gasoline are on everybody's minds as Americans take to the roads for the July Fourth holiday weekend. John McCain has taken the subject head-on with his proposal to allow individual states to choose how and whether to increase oil and natural gas drilling off their coastlines. But first let's take a peek at Iraq. Its government recently awarded several major oil companies the rights to drill in Iraq. Accusations flew that the Bush administration played favorites with the American oil companies up for consideration to drill, but it was...

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) accused the State Department Wednesday of issuing “misleading” denials regarding its involvement in Hunt Oil’s controversial contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, also alleged that the results of his panel’s investigation raised serious questions as to the role the State Department played in the recently reported no-bid contracts between the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and prominent U.S. and multinational oil corporations. In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Waxman demanded that her office hand over all communications on the negotiation of the...

We’re surprised that Sen. Chuck Schumer can keep straight which foreign countries he’s haranguing to pump more oil and which he’s haranguing to stop pumping more oil. A few weeks ago the New York senator and aspiring global Petroleum Czar was threatening to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia if it didn’t produce more oil. Now, he’s outraged that the Iraqi government may give modest no-bid service contracts to Western oil companies as a first step toward more fully exploiting the country’s vast oil reserves. Perhaps Sen. Schumer would approve if the Saudis were to agree to pump the Iraq...

Energy: A free Iraq has invited foreign oil companies to bid on its massive oil fields. Why do Democratic senators want the U.S. to thwart the will of the people in the country we liberated?It's too bad so many Americans have been conditioned by the powers of this country's media establishment into believing that oil is a filthy, diabolical substance — rather than the lifeblood of today's economy on which our national security and economic well-being depend. What the people of Iraq, through their free government, did this week is something both Iraqis and Americans can be proud of: Baghdad...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein. The move to invite bids for the development of Iraq's largest producing fields should mark the return of the oil majors, whose cash and expertise Iraq needs to restore its oil infrastructure that has been hard hit by sanctions and war. But any awards to U.S. and British firms could anger opponents of the invasion, who have said the 2003 war was designed to give Western oil...

Iraq said on Monday it has failed to sign technical support agreements with global oil majors which were aimed at helping boost the war-torn country's oil production. Iraq is negotiating with Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total, and a consortium of other smaller oil companies, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said at press briefing.

Iraq to sue oil-for-food suspects The Iraqi government has said it will file lawsuits in US courts against firms and people suspected of illegally profiting from a UN programme. The UN oil-for-food programme allowed Saddam Hussein's government to sell oil in order to buy humanitarian supplies during UN sanctions from 1996-2003. An inquiry found that 2,200 firms paid $1.8bn in bribes to Iraqi officials. Meanwhile, a US army report has said there was little planning for events after Saddam Hussein was overthrown. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement that the legal action was to recover damages and...

Iraq plans to file suit in a U.S. court against the United Nations for alleged corruption in the oil-for-food program, Iraqi legal sources said Friday. The United Nations established the program in 1995 to allow Iraq to sell oil to global markets in exchange for food and humanitarian supplies without generating revenue to rebuild the Iraqi military in the wake of the Persian Gulf War. The program ended shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when the Coalition Provisional Authority assumed responsibility for humanitarian functions. An investigation by the congressional investigative body the Government Accountability Office found loopholes in the...

It was meant to be the rising tide that would lift the Iraqi economy out of years of war and sanctions, to finance reconstruction and guarantee cheap global supplies. Yet, five years on, big oil is only just starting to move cautiously into Iraq and, despite record prices, experts caution against another false dawn of optimism. Four oil giants - Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP - are to announce next week no-bid contracts to start servicing the creaking Iraqi oil infrastructure, crippled for decades by lack of investment and often targeted by insurgents. The deals came as the Oil...

A group of Democratic senators led by Charles E. Schumer of New York is appealing to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to block a set of contentious no-bid oil contracts that Iraq has decided to award to the Western oil giants Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP. And if that appeal, which Mr. Schumer’s office said it faxed in the form of a letter to the State Department on Monday afternoon, is not heeded, the senators will try to cut off financing for as-yet-unspecified programs in Iraq that are not directly in support of American troops, Mr. Schumer said in...

Iraq will award contracts to 41 foreign oil firms in a bid to boost production that could give multinationals a potentially lucrative foothold in huge but underdeveloped oil fields, an official said on Sunday. "We chose 35 companies of international standard, according to their finances, environment and experience, and we granted them permission to extract oil," oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told AFP. Six other state-owned oil firms from Algeria, Angola, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam will also be awarded extraction deals, Jihad said. The agreements, to be signed on June 30, are expected to be short-term arrangements although the...

Getty Image Iraq may supply gas to Europe via an extensive pipeline network connecting Syria and Turkey************************** Iraq may supply gas to Europe via an extensive pipeline network connecting Syria and Turkey [GETTY] Iraqi energy experts have told Al Jazeera that oil and gas fields in the western Anbar province may soon begin pumping gas to European markets.Mukhtar al-Ani, an Iraqi oil consultant, said: "In early January, the Ministry of Oil held talks with a number of potential companies regarding development of the huge Akkas gas field in the north-western desert of Anbar province."According to the ministry, Akkas, which lies 40km from...

Didn't you just know this was coming? A consortium of Western oil companies — the very definition of Big Oil — is on the verge of receiving no-bid contracts in Iraq, giving them access to one of the most sought-after prizes in the petroleum industry, according to The New York Times. Can it be mere coincidence that the leading companies in the deal — ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Total — are the very same companies that Saddam Hussein threw out when he nationalized the Iraqi oil industry more than three decades ago? The American public has been reassured, repeatedly, that...

Many in the wacko wing of the anti-war movement - which includes a few Congress critters - have claimed that the Iraq war was all about Bush’s oil buddies.Well, I’m glad to at least see that part is working out: 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. American involvement in rebuilding Iraq’s oil inustry is good news for both countries - the U.S. companies now have a replacement for lost markets...

BAGHDAD: 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. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay...

U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion and officials said on Sunday improved security also helped the country boost oil production in May to a post-war high. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iraq's oil minister credited better security for the two milestones, which illustrated a dramatic turnabout in the fortunes of a country on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war just 12 months ago. "We've still got a distance to go but I think lower casualty rates are a reflection of some real progress," Gates told reporters in Singapore....

U.S. monthly death toll drops to new low * Iraq says oil production at post-war high * Australia pulls out combat troops By Ross Colvin BAGHDAD, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion and officials said on Sunday improved security also helped the country boost oil production in May to a post-war high. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iraq's oil minister credited better security for the two milestones, which illustrated a dramatic turnabout in the fortunes of a country on the brink of all-out sectarian civil...

Iraq dramatically increased the official size of its oil reserves yesterday after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabia's and be the largest in the world. The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister told The Times that new exploration showed that his country has the world's largest proven oil reserves, with as much as 350 billion barrels. The figure is triple the country's present proven reserves and exceeds that of Saudi Arabia's estimated 264 billion barrels of oil. Barham Salih said the new estimate had been based on recent geological surveys and seismic data compiled by “reputable, international oil companies...

BAGHDAD — As Congress gears up to debate the Bush administration's latest request for an additional $108 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraqis are fuming at suggestions being floated by lawmakers that Baghdad should start paying a share of the war's costs by providing cheap fuel to the U.S. military. "America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq," said Abdul Basit, the head of Iraq's Supreme Board of Audit, an independent body that oversees Iraqi government spending. "This is an immoral request because we didn't ask them to come to Iraq, and before they...

Iraq's financial free ride may be over. After five years, Republicans and Democrats seem to have found common ground on at least one aspect of the war. From the fiercest war foes to the most steadfast Bush supporters, they are looking at Iraq's surging oil income and saying Baghdad should start picking up the tab, particularly for rebuilding hospitals, roads, power lines and the rest of the shattered country. "I think the American people are growing weary not only of the war, but they are looking at why Baghdad can't pay more of these costs. And the answer is they...

AMMAN, Jordan — Crude oil exports from Iraq's key southern Basra terminal have increased to 1.44 million barrels a day, nearly double the 768,000 barrels produced over the last two days, a shipping agent said Wednesday. "The loading rate has increased to 60,000 barrels an hour since Tuesday afternoon," or 1.44 million barrels a day, the agent said by telephone from the terminal, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

MOSCOW, March 26 (Reuters) - Russian firm Stroytransgaz has signed a protocol with Iraq to reactivate an oil export pipeline to Syria's Mediterranean terminal of Banias, the Russian firm said on Wednesday. It said it had signed the deal in Amman, Jordan, with Iraqi North Oil Company. "The participation of Stroytransgaz in this project will represent a substantial contribution by Russian firms to reconstruction and modernisation of Iraqi economic infrastructure," the statement said. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki calling on him to support Russian investments in the country. The letter...

Moscow has stepped up its attempts to become Washington's main rival in the Middle East with an audacious attempt to win a large stake of Iraq's oil wealth. Glossing over his opposition to the American-led invasion and a prolonged period of poor relations with Baghdad, President Vladimir Putin wrote to Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, this week setting out the case for Russian investment in the energy sector. The move comes at a time when Russia is aggressively expanding its influence in the Middle East, an offensive that some say echoes the Cold War competition for patronage once waged...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad. The fighting has exposed a rift within the majority Shi'ite community and put pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose forces have failed to drive fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr off the streets of Iraq's second-largest city. Authorities shut down Baghdad with a strict curfew, but that did not halt rocket attacks and clashes in the capital. Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim acknowledged that Iraqi security forces...

HAQLANIYAH, Iraq, March 27, 2008 – Marines and sailors delivered the first batch of personal protection equipment, valued at $118,000, to employees of the Northern Petroleum Co. at the K3 Oil refinery here March 25. Navy Lt. j.g. Eric Palmer, team leader of Civil Affairs Group Detachment 1, Team 6 of the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based Regimental Combat Team 5, delivers the first batch of personal protection gear to Iraqi employees of the Northern Petroleum Oil Company at the K3 Oil Refinery in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, March 25, 2008. Included were hearing protection, facial shields, goggles, gloves, coveralls, and steel-toed boots....

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil jumped above $107 on Thursday after saboteurs blew up one of Iraq's two main export pipelines. The attack on the pipeline in southern Iraq came on the third day of an Iraqi military operation against fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the oil port of Basra. "This morning saboteurs blew up the pipeline transporting crude from Zubair 1 by placing bombs beneath it. The pipeline was severely damaged," a Southern Oil Company official told Reuters. "We will lose about a third of crude exported through Basra," he said, adding that it would take three...

The continuing military operations in the oil hub Basra have slowed down Iraq's crude-oil production and exports from southern oil fields, an Iraqi official with the South Oil Company and a shipping agent said Thursday. Meanwhile, a bomb Thursday struck the key Zubair-1 crude pipeline -- the largest pipeline to the Basra export terminal -- and will likely affect exports "heavily," the South Oil Company official said.

BAGHDAD: A bomb struck an oil pipeline Thursday in Iraq's southern city of Basra where Iraqi security forces have been clashing with Shiite militia fighters, an oil official said, the second such attack this week

BAGHDAD, March 26 (Reuters) - Oil production and exports from Iraq's southern oilfields could be disrupted in three days if workers cannot reach their offices due to fighting in Basra, a Southern Oil Company official said on Wednesday. "If the military operations continue for three more days, the oil workers will not be able to continue their work and this is going to definitely affect oil production and exports," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's cabinet has given the green light to the Oil Ministry to sign agreements with international oil companies to help increase the nation's crude output, a ministry official said Wednesday. The two-year deals, known as technical support agreements, or TSAs, are designed to develop five producing fields to add 500,000 barrels per day to the country's 2.4 million barrels per day output. Last December, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC, ExxonMobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. submitted technical and financial proposals for the five fields and received counterproposals from the Iraqi side. In January, representatives from the companies and...

An initial investment of $40 billion (Dh146.8bn) is needed to put Iraq’s oil industry back on track, according to a new book. The country is an oil superpower with the world’s third largest proven reserves – and development programmes could add billions of barrels within a few years, catapulting it to the number one position. But three major wars and more than 12 years of crippling UN sanctions have reduced the Arab state to a minor crude exporter despite the fact it is one of a handful of countries with super-giant oilfields. Meanwhile, other countries with much smaller hydrocarbon resources...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's crude oil exports in January inched up to 59.6 million barrels, a six per cent increase from the previous month, the Oil Ministry said Tuesday. Iraq's average production was 2.4 million barrels per day in January while exports stood at an average of 1.92 million barrels per day, the ministry's figures showed. December's exports averaged 1.81 million barrels per day. But there was still an enormous difference in output between the southern port of Basra, which exported an average of 1.54 million barrels daily, and the northern city of Kirkuk, which exported nearly 380,000 barrels per day....

(UPI) -- Iraq has stopped exports via its northern pipeline because storage tanks in Turkey have been filled. Abdul Razzak Mohammed al-Jiboori of the North Oil Co., a state-run firm, said levels will be drawn down over the next few days after expected sales. Iraq Directory reports the storage reservoirs in Ceyhan, Turkey, reached 6.8 million barrels of oil produced from the Kirkuk oil fields. This is a major feat considering the pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan was mostly offline since 2003 because of attacks from insurgents. In August the Iraq Oil Ministry said repairs and revamped security of the...

Laden: US seeks to exploit Iraq oil (Agencies) Updated: 2007-12-30 08:41 Dubai - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused Washington of plotting to take control of Iraq's oil and urged Iraqis to reject efforts to rebuild a US-backed national unity government. The militant leader also vowed in an audio recording posted on the Internet on Saturday to expand jihad to liberate all Palestinian land and said his group will never recognize Israel. "America seeks, alongside its agents in the region, to create an allied government ... that would accept in advance the presence of major US bases in Iraq...

KIRKUK, Iraq — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit Tuesday to the city that Iraq's Kurds call their Jerusalem, an oil-rich territory claimed by many where the United States says it sees new signs of cooperation and progress. Rice was seeing members of a civilian-military reconstruction unit based in Kirkuk and meeting provincial politicians of all stripes. She was seeing Iraq's central leadership later in Baghdad. Such reconstruction units were expanded along with the escalation of U.S. forces President Bush ordered this year. Sunni Arabs ended a yearlong political boycott earlier this month in Kirkuk — the...

Iraqi oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA said Iraqi crude production is now running at 2.3 million barrels per day, compared with 1.9 million barrels at the start of this year

Iraqi oil exceeds pre-war output Iraq's oil infrastructure appears to be getting back on track Iraqi oil production is above the levels seen before the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA said Iraqi crude production is now running at 2.3 million barrels per day, compared with 1.9 million barrels at the start of this year. It puts the rise down to the improving security situation in Iraq, especially in the north of the country. But the IEA warned that attacks on Iraqi oil facilities remain a threat. In southern...

THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS: Iraq Bonds Rally on U.S. Troop Surge, Oil Earnings.

Saudi Arabia, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Iraq is producing nearly 2.5 million barrels per day, a giant step forward, as the security situation improves, its oil minister said. "The security situation in Iraq over the last year has not helped the oil industry in the country to produce as much as Iraq can produce and make available to the world market," Hussain al-Shahristani told reporters this week on the sidelines of an OPEC summit. "However, in the last couple of months there has been very significant improvement in the security conditions in the country," he said. "We have been producing...

Billionaire Jean-Claude Gandur has braved war and corruption to build an oil empire on the cheap. Recently a huge explosion shook northern Iraq. Not the usual kind. This blazing fire and billowing black smoke came from a test drill at Taq Taq, an oilfield 30 miles southwest of Irbil in the Kurdish region. With no pipeline or storage tanks in place, Addax Petroleum had little choice but to burn off the oil rather than let it soak into the rocky ground. Opening the well for a few minutes revealed a true gusher: a flow rate of 37,500 barrels per day....

Basra, Iraq - It could be an "empire," says one Shiite militia leader. For the provincial governor, Basra's future is shimmering skyscrapers. He wants the Iraqi port city to be another Arab metropolis, perhaps the next Dubai. Many Iraqis – businessmen, criminal bosses, militia commanders, political leaders – have designs on the city, that is vitally important to Iraq's national economy. With its oil proceeds, Basra Province provided Baghdad nearly 90 percent of its budget of $40 million this year. And there is more money to come, if Iraq fully repairs and expands its war-ravaged oil infrastructure. Basra sits on...

Clarifying a controversial comment in his new memoir, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he told the White House before the Iraq war that removing Saddam Hussein was "essential" to secure world oil supplies, according to an interview published on Monday. Greenspan, who wrote in his memoir that "the Iraq War is largely about oil," said in a Washington Post interview that while securing global oil supplies was "not the administration's motive," he had presented the White House before the 2003 invasion with the case for why removing the then-Iraqi leader was important for the global economy. "I was...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday rejected former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's statement that the Iraq war "is largely about oil." "I wasn't here for the decision-making process that initiated it, that started the war," Gates said. But he added, "I know the same allegation was made about the Gulf War in 1991, and I just don't believe it's true." "I think that it's really about stability in the Gulf. It's about rogue regimes trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. It's about aggressive dictators," Gates said. "After all, Saddam Hussein launched wars against several...

September 4, 2007 -- Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani today said that crude oil began to flow from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to a Turkish export terminal last week. Al-Shahristani said Iraq is "pumping between 300,000 and 400,000 barrels a day of Kirkuk crude to the Turkish export terminal of Ceyhan." The pipeline has been mostly closed due to constant sabotage since the U.S.-led invasion. Iraq has also agreed with Syria to repair and subsequently reopen another key pipeline, an 880-kilometer link connecting Kirkuk and the Syrian port of Baniyas.

A large western oil company has offered $700m for oil assets in Iraqi Kurdistan owned by DNO, the small Norwegian oil company. The offer signals that international oil companies are willing to put significant amounts of money into Iraq in spite of the security problems and lack of a legal framework.DNO refused to name the company, but industry executives speculated that Royal Dutch Shell was a possible bidder. Shell on Wednesday refused to comment. DNO said it had received an “unsolicited expression of interest from a reputable financial adviser on behalf of a large international oil company”, but had rejected...

Iraq is preparing to resume oil exports through Turkey in a few weeks through a new pipeline built in the midst of violence to help handle the flows, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Tuesday. Crews have finished testing a 500,000-barrel per day pipeline covering a section of the northern export route and a special security force numbering thousands is being deployed to guard the network, Shahristani told Reuters. "We have executed construction in a region practically on fire and we now have a bigger margin for manoeuvre as far as countering sabotage," Shahristani said in an interview. "The tests...

WASHINGTON — Houston oilman David Chalmers, accused of funneling illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's regime at at time when Iraq was the target of strict economic sanctions, pleaded guilty today to a conspiracy charge. Chalmers' business associate at Houston-based BayOil, Ludmil Dionissiev, pleaded guilty to one count of facilitating a shipment of merchandise into the United States, knowing that shipment to not be authorized by law. That leaves Houston oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt as the lone defendant still slated to go to trial in September on charges he made millions of dollars in illicit payments to Saddam's government for the...

A Texas oil executive pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to cheat the United Nations oil-for-food program out of millions by paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraq regime. David Chalmers, the sole shareholder of Bayoil USA Inc. in Houston, was set to go on trial next month on charges he used a cozy relationship with Iraq in the 1980s to secure oil contracts. He could have faced more than 60 years in prison if convicted. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend a 37- to 46-month term when he is sentenced Nov. 19. Chalmers...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer for Oscar Wyatt has asked a judge to exclude evidence from his upcoming trial that suggests a link between the Texas oil tycoon and Saddam Hussein and a tip to Iraq about the U.S. invasion. The motion, filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, comes three weeks before Wyatt, former chairman and founder of Coastal Corp., goes on trial accused of paying secret kickbacks to Iraq and corrupting the U.N. oil-for-food program. He has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to pay several million dollars in kickbacks to Iraq in relation to the...