Oil companies divide spoils in Iraq

Iraq: Who Said It’s Not About Oil?

Posted by Jon King on Jan 26, 2010

Tagged with: baghdad, bp, bush, conspiracy, exxonmobil, iraq, iraq war inquiry, jon king, new world politics, oil, regime change, royal dutch shell, saddam hussein, weapons of mass destruction, WMD

Energy giants ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell sign off multibillion-dollar oil deal in Iraq – all about oil or what…?

Iraq: Who Said It’s Not About Oil?

By Jon King

In a week when Tony Blair is due before the Iraq War Inquiry to face questions on the legality of the August 2003 invasion of Iraq, energy giants ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell signed a deal with the Iraq Ministry of Oil to develop and expand the West Qurna-1 oil field.

West Quirna is the second largest oil field in Iraq, set to produce more than 2 million barrels a day.

The deal was signed in Baghdad yesterday by Iraq Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani and Rob Franklin, president of ExxonMobil Upstream Ventures.

iraq_oil_fields “We are pleased to sign the agreement for the redevelopment and expansion of the West Qurna-1 field,” a beaming Rob Franklin announced. “We look forward to working with the government of Iraq and the South Oil Company on implementation of this important project.”

According to a report in Al Bawaba Middle East News, Franklin said ExxonMobil would ‘continue discussions with the government on other opportunities to assist Iraq in developing the country’s resources’.

I bet they will.

Sharing the spoils with Exxon is the Anglo-Dutch outfit, Royal Dutch Shell, a remnant of the old Anglo-Dutch / City of London Oligarchy and a company invested in heavily by the Royal Family.

Shell and Exxon share a colourful history, the former being the plaything of the mighty Rothschild banking empire while the latter is the product of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.

It was the Rockefeller-owned Standard Oil of New Jersey, of course, who fuelled Hitler’s tanks during World War II.

By account Shell is to receive 15% of total profits in the Iraq deal, while Exxon is set to take 60%. The remaining 25% has been allotted to Iraq’s government-owned Oil Exploration Company—at least some compensation for the million-plus innocent Iraqis massacred since 2003, I guess.

iraq_war_for_oil And there are still those who argue this blood bath was not about oil.

For the record, other oil fields in Iraq have already been divided up between the various multi-national bidders—including the country’s prize asset, the Rumaila field, now jointly owned by Shell’s British rival BP and China’s state energy company, CNPC.

Between them BP and CNPC are set to triple daily production at the Rumaila field to 2.85 million barrels—well worth a regime change, even if it did flout international law.

Meanwhile Iraq remains the fourth largest oil-producing country in the world.

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