China Has Head Start Over West for Iraq Oil
August 31st, 2008China financed the war, so…
Via: Reuters:
China crossed the line first in the race for big oil contracts in post-Saddam Iraq and has gained a head start over Western oil majors in the competition for future energy deals.
China’s biggest oil company, state-run CNPC, agreed a $3 billion service contract with Iraq on Wednesday.
The deal could set a precedent for terms that fall far short of the lucrative contracts the oil majors had hoped for as they jostled for access to the world’s third largest oil reserves.
Starved of investment since the Gulf War of 1990-1991 and the subsequent U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that removed former President Saddam Hussein, Iraq holds some of the world’s last large, cheap, untapped oil reservoirs.
“The biggest significance of this deal is that CNPC will benefit as the first international oil company to be developing one of the giant discovered oil fields in Iraq in the new era,” said Alex Munton, analyst at global consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
“They will be the first with people on the ground and the first to develop a working relationship with Iraq’s oil ministry.”
good thing we’ll be off (middle eastern) oil in 10 years. 😉
“…in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=db809f72-eaa6-4d52-8e42-a176dbf80538&ParentID=76ea2312-cbef-4edf-bb71-f585c2505796&MatchID1=4733&TeamID1=2&TeamID2=3&MatchType1=2&SeriesID1=1193&PrimaryID=4733&Headline=Full+text+of+Obama's+acceptance+speech
If for no other reason, that statement alone will be his undoing (assuming he actually attempts to achieve that goal), unless the oil majors decide they no longer care about hundreds of billions of dollars — trillions? — in profits still in the ground in Iraq and Iran. Call me skeptical, but I don’t see that happening.
I wonder how U.S. soldiers and their families would feel if they knew that not only were they sent to Iraq to be killed for oil – but not even for oil for the U.S.
“I’m an army of one. And this one is gonna give my life in Iraq so that the communist Chinese may have fuel for their cars.” Don’t think we’ll be seeing that Army recruiting commercial anytime soon.