Bonanza w Iraku

[Gość: Independent]

Russia fears US oil companies will take over world's second-biggest reserves
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
26 September 2002
Internal links

Britain fights to restrain US over combative UN resolution

Eighty more Labour MPs ready to rebel, Blair is warned

British dossier is scorned as 'propaganda'

March 'will be biggest anti-war gathering'

Russia fears US oil companies will take over world's second-biggest reserves

US claims proof of Iraq terror link

Democrat leader rages at Bush's 'patriot' claim

Deadpan Rumsfeld digs in over Germany

Donald Macintyre: Mr Blair would be wise not to ignore the unease over his
Iraq policy

Anita Roddick: How I became a target for America's zealots

Peter Carrington: Regime change is all very well, but who will replace
Saddam?

Leading article: Both sides must share the blame for the breakdown in German-
US relations
Oil companies from around the world are manoeuvring for the multibillion-
dollar bonanza that would follow the ousting of Saddam Hussein.

Russia is so concerned that it has been holding secretive talks with the
Iraqi opposition to shore up its economic interests in the country which
still owes Moscow $7bn dollars from Soviet times.

With the second-biggest reserves in the world, Iraq's underdeveloped
oilfields have become a key negotiating chip and a backdrop to talks between
the US and the other permanent members of the UN Security Council – all of
which have major economic stakes in regime change in Iraq.

It has also given fuel to critics of America's war plans who say the desire
for regime change is at least partly driven by economics.

Oil industry experts say there is growing concern that America would dominate
the Iraqi oil industry after Saddam. As a result, a number of oil companies
have reportedly held talks with the Iraqi opposition to ensure they are
involved in any future deals.

The Independent has learnt that the Russian government – which is friendly
towards Iraq – recently dispatched a diplomat to hold talks with a senior
official from the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the US-backed opposition
umbrella group. At that meeting in Washington on 29 August – the first for
seven years – the diplomat expressed worries that Russia would be kept out of
the oil markets by the US.

James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA and a commentator on the
relationship between oil and global security, told The Washington Post: "It's
pretty straightforward. France and Russia have oil companies and interests in
Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in moving Iraq
toward decent government we'll do the best we can to ensure the new
government and American companies work closely with them.

"If they throw in their lot with Saddam it will be difficult to the point of
impossible to persuade the new Iraqi government to work with them." Iraq has
confirmed oil reserves of 112 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia,
with perhaps double that in undiscovered reserves. With sanctions in place,
the current production is just 2.8 million barrels a day – a capacity it
struggles to reach because of deteriorating equipment.

Under the United Nations' oil-for-food programme, it exports about one
million barrels a day. Since 1998, two subsidiaries of Houston-based
Halliburton, the company previously headed by the US Vice-President, Dick
Cheney, have done $24m (£15.3m) of business to repair Iraqi oil pipelines
under the UN programme.

Experts say that given sufficient further foreign investment, Iraq could be
producing a total of 6 million barrels a day within five years, making it the
world's third biggest producer behind Russia and Saudi Arabia.

But which companies