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Jesus Christ is this week over already. I just hit four deadlines today alone. I’m exhausted and slaphappy. I should also pass you over to my latest thing for the Washington Independent — an exploration of the implications of last month’s Iraqi oil deal. My brave conclusion: it’s complicated!
[T]he contracts given to the Western oil giants aren’t production contracts, but preliminary technical contracts. Add to that the fact that most companies don’t want to send personnel to Iraq, because of the persistent instability. Yet, the contracts could still create political problems for the Iraqi government, if their terms offend a fiercely nationalistic population.
Despite the caricature of the all-powerful oil conglomerate, all this means the oil companies are more beholden to Iraqi’s volatile politics than the other way around. "The industry can’t control the internal politics of Iraq," said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank, "and that’s what’s preventing development."
You know, all my sources for this piece were, unsurprisingly, oil-industry insiders or sympathizers. I even quoted a guy who used to work for Doug Feith! Favorably! So in comments, let me have it — was the piece a gleaming bastion to my intellectual honesty or did I get rolled, without even the soothing tones of Rick Astley to soften the fall from grace? It’s open season.
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I think your piece effectively explained why the contracts (undemocratic-ly as they were awarded) are no boon to Big Oil, not yet at least. And relying on all oil-industry goons isn’t a problem, except you rather conceded the last word to them. The take-away from the last 2 ‘graphs, for me, was:
‘It’s the Iraqi’s oil, so they’re calling the shots.’
‘Anyone who says otherwise is a conspiracy theorist.’
‘It would just be a happy coincidence if the country stabilized and we got all that oil.’
“That’s a sovereign country.” rings especially hollow when you take even a half-assed look at history. The oil fields at Baba Gurgur were discovered in 1927. In the 81 years since, the US and the UK have either been controlling a colony or fighting a war against the Iraqi government for what, 2/3 of the time? We are anything but a disinterested party, Western oil corporations most certainly fuckin included. Only with our impressive acquired naiveté could we act like the US was “bringing democracy to the middle east” and saying “it’s their oil-they call the shots.”
I don’t think you got rolled, SA — I’ve found much the same thing when I’ve looked into the oil situation in Iraq. In response to the valid fears cited above, I’ll repeat what I wrote in a comment at Yglesiasville a year ago (gratuitous emphasis added):