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Baghdad tells the world: "It's our oil"
Sun Jul 05 12:45PM
After a massive build up, the live broadcast proved a big letdown. Iraq offered six oil fields and two gas fields to international energy companies last week, but only one offer was taken up.There were gasps from the conference floor when delegates saw the gap between what the government was offering and what the bidders wanted. The faces gathered around beneath a giant stage erected for the day's proceedings told the story; it had been a disappointment.
Iraq needs money. The country's public services are a shell of their former selves. It is often said that Iraq had one of the best, if not the best- educated populations in the Middle East in the 1970s. But that was the 1970s.
Three wars and 18 years of sanctions put paid to a strong education service. Ahead of Tuesday's energy auction, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said the "huge amount" of money raised would "finance infrastructure projects across Iraq -- schools, roads, airports, housing, hospitals." That was his pitch.
Barely 24 hours after the event he went on national television and denied the auction had been a failure. Oil production will increase, meaning more money as planned, as a result of the successful British-Chinese bid for the biggest oil field on offer, assuming of course that complex contract terms are agreed in the coming months.
But Shahristani's "It's our oil" tone could not have been clearer, as he told the local audience that the foreign companies would end up getting less than one dollar per barrel produced under the deal. Mr Shahristani was clearly trying to appease his fellow Iraqis, mindful that he could be accused of conducting a sell-out.
His comments have not been lost on the international business and diplomatic community in Baghdad. "He might have been talking to Iraqis, but we heard him too," one such individual said.
In this blog, reporters and editors for global news wire AFP blog about the news they report and the challenges they face covering events from Baghdad to Beijing, the White House to Darfur. Arthur Macmillan reports for AFP from Baghdad.Comment on this article
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gipsyqueens2 needs to learn a little history. The Middle East has given us nothing indeed! Where did Algebra and Geometry come from? During the Crusades while wealthy Europeans were living in drafty stone buildings and the peasants were living in hovels, the Middle East had a highly organised society. The wealthy lived in spacious garceful homes and the less well off had substantial houses. There was literature, music, science and medicine far in advance of anything Europe had at the time. Some of the most beautiful and ancient buildings which the Spanish are so proud of were built by the Moors, who were Arabs from Morocco.
Ordinary Iraqis have suffered a great deal more than we will ever know in the past few years, they need all the help they can get in putting their country back together. The mess it is in at present is largely due to Britain and America failing to plan an exit strategy before they invaded in such a gung-ho fashion. There was a perfectly good infrastructure in Iraq before the invasion, which for the most part destroyed it.
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TO THE VICTOR COMES THE SPOILS!Don't be fooled for a second,talk is cheap and every man has a price.The USA and UK own the oil feilds they are letting the Iraqi big it up to the World.Just hte same as the UK owning all the opium going into China.History is a great guide book there was no reason to be going into the country other than OIL.
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TO THE VICTOR COMES THE SPOILS!Don't be fooled for a second,talk is cheap and every man has a price.The USA and UK own the oil feilds they are letting the Iraqi big it up to the World.Just hte same as the UK owning all the opium going into China.History is a great guide book there was no reason to be going into the country other than OIL.
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If Iraq keeps its oil, then so should saudi arabia, russia etc. If you use that argument number 1 comment then surely china should keep all irts rice, Ireland should keep all its potatoes, France should keep all its wine, Germany should keep all its bratwurst, Where do you stop!!!!!
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Yes,its Iraqi oil - providing they sell it to USA.
You cant just switch energy sources at will - just now it is oil which drives economies - and there are vested interests at play - you cant simply flip a switch.
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Well they hate the west. But be fair. There should have been no war in the first place. The west started the war against Iraq. They destroyed Iraq's infrastructures that they have worked hard for, so what if they now want the west to help rebuild them. Is it so unfair? Oil is essential for any country to survive so if Iraq say the oil is theirs, then it is theirs. They should demand returns for their oil. There are other countries who need oil so if those bigger countries don't take up the offer then smaller ones can take up the deal.
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when iraq,s oil runs out in 40 years,all they,ll have is sand and camels.
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surely Kenneth Morris, that's much better than having a country full of barrel-s@#$%ing kernobs like you????
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Gipsyqueens2:
It is in the middle east where the wheel was found, where the first laws were made, where people learned how to write and calculate. Don't be a fool! What the Middle-eastern countries are going through now is partly because of their own mistakes but greatly because of interverence of the country with the dumbest inhabitants in the world (you know them, the big fat ****). Bombing here and bombing there, destroying everything...
Just leave Iraq on its own and it will prosper, because the Iraqi's are brave, resourceful and determined. The only thing they need is the Yanks, Irani's and all other evil powers to leave the country.
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stupid american racist government
they can't seem to stop lying about their wars
when will the sleeping world realise
american government don't give a F*** for their own citizens nevermind iraqs? and what democracy? 1.5 million died in iraq, and what was the point demolishing their economy? i wouldn't call that aid!!!!!
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