The Iraqi oil ministry has approved six of its oil fields open to “development” granting contracts to foreign firms. Iraq has the world’s third-largest reserves. This very fact has fuelled suspicion that the invasion was for Iraq’s oil.
According to the New York Times, advisors from the American state department helped draw up the contracts between the Iraqi government and oil companies. This is further proof of the neo-liberal agenda in Iraq. The objective of the war was to open up the Iraqi economy to foreign (American and British) companies; the ultimate aim was to get at the vast oil reserves.
Foreign oil companies were thrown out of Iraq by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein when he nationalised the oil 36 years ago. The Iraqi oil ministry looks set to announce deals with Shell, Exxonmobil, BP, Chevron and Total.
According to Al-Jazeera:
Iraq wants to increase oil output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the current average production of 2.5 million bpd, equal to the amount being pumped before the US-led invasion in March 2003.
Exports of 2.11 million bpd currently form the bulk of the war-torn nation's revenues.
The oil ministry is keen to raise capacity over the next five years to 4.5 million bpd.
Iraq's crude reserves are estimated at about 115 billion barrels.
Last year Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve said: "Everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."
The deals are controversial as the Iraqi parliament has not yet passed law on how the oil revenues will be distributed.
The Iraqi government is American backed, the contracts were drawn up by the Americans, the companies awarded the contracts are American approved, who do you think runs Iraq?
Sources: AlJazeera, The Associated Press, The Guardian, New York Times
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