Iraq says U.S.-backed oil law sent to parliament

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, May 2 (Reuters) - The Iraqi government has sent to parliament a landmark draft oil law, the oil minister said on Wednesday, a major step towards meeting one of the political benchmarks Washington has set for Baghdad.

Parliamentary officials, however, said they were unaware the bill had been submitted to the legislature.

The draft law, crucial to regulating how wealth from Iraq's vast reserves would be shared by its sectarian and ethnic groups, was passed by cabinet in February and hailed at the time by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as a pillar of Iraqi unity.

But a dispute between the central government and autonomous, oil-rich Kurdistan over control of the world's third largest oil reserves has delayed its submission.

Speaking to reporters in Saudi Arabia, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Kurdish officials were happy with the law, adding he hoped it would pass by the end of May.



Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02423451.htm

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Iraq Kurdish region says will try to block oil law
By Ahmed Rasheed Reuters - 21 minutes agoBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Kurdish region on Sunday said it would try to block a draft oil law in parliament, raising the stakes in a row with the central government over control of the world's third largest oil reserves.

The Kurdistan autonomous region appears to be on a collision course with Baghdad over the U.S.-backed draft law at a time when Iraq is engulfed by sectarian violence.

The threat to fight the bill in Iraq's national parliament comes just days after the Oil Ministry in Baghdad warned regions against signing contracts until the landmark law was passed.

"These annexes are unconstitutional and will not be supported by the Kurdish regional government in the federal parliament," Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in Kurdistan, told Reuters in a statement in response to questions.

more: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2827520

[acmavm]

1. Oh, this should go over like a lead fart.

[izzie]

2. This should be fun. I am sure we will be the plantation owners

Profits are at hand.

[Javaman]

3. "were unaware the bill had been submitted to the legislature."

To the iraqi parliment or the real parliment run by the U.S.?

[Eugene]

4. Parliament has not seen draft yet, expects bill tomorrow - updated Reuters report

Source: Reuters

Iraq sends oil law to parliament
02 May 2007 16:31:40 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Adds Rice meets Maliki in Egypt)

By Ahmed Rasheed

-snip-

Haider al-Ibadi, a lawmaker and head of the economic and investment
commission in parliament, told Reuters parliament had not received
the draft yet. He expected cabinet would meet tomorrow to send the
draft to parliament.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO228711.htm

[alfredo]

5. The Kurds may be the only ones who will want us to be based

anywhere in old Iraq. We best pay attention to their concerns.

[tabasco]

6. The puppet government of Iraq works for the Bush oil mafia, ExxonMobil etc.

The only thing protecting the Iraqi puppets from their own people is US military & mercenaries.

[DLnyc]

7. Yes, Bushistas want to 'share' the oil with their friendly oil corporations

See this op-ed from the Times:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2007/0313whosoil.htm


Iraq’s oil reserves — thought to be the second largest in the world — have always been high on the corporate wish list. In 1998, Kenneth Derr, then chief executive of Chevron, told a San Francisco audience, “Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas — reserves I’d love Chevron to have access to.” A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal. The Iraq hydrocarbon law would take the majority of Iraq’s oil out of the exclusive hands of the Iraqi government and open it to international oil companies for a generation or more.

In March 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force), which included executives of America’s largest energy companies, recommended that the United States government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries “to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment.” One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.

Since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law toward passage. It is one of the president’s benchmarks for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fact that Mr. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen. William Casey, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other administration officials are publicly emphasizing with increasing urgency. The administration has highlighted the law’s revenue sharing plan, under which the central government would distribute oil revenues throughout the nation on a per capita basis. But the benefits of this excellent proposal are radically undercut by the law’s many other provisions — these allow much (if not most) of Iraq’s oil revenues to flow out of the country and into the pockets of international oil companies.


Also see here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2756835

"Production Sharing Agreements" is a euphemism for taking ownership of Iraqi oil, currently nationalized (as is Suadi, Kuwaiti and Iranian oil)
and giving it to ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP.

[daleo]

8. I can't see there being much to share

What the insurgents don't blow up, the Bushies will steal.

[IndianaGreen]

9. A historical analogy to this oil law is Cuba's infamous Platt Amendment of 1901

III. That the government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the government of Cuba."

IV. That all Acts of the United States in Cuba during its military occupancy thereof are ratified and validated, and all lawful rights acquired thereunder shall be maintained and protected."

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1901platt.html

The Platt Amendment was a rider amended to the Army Appropriations Act, a United States federal law passed on March 2, 1901 that stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba since the Spanish-American War, and defined the terms of Cuban-U.S. relations until 1934. Formulated by the U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root, the amendment was presented to the Senate by, and named for, Connecticut Republican Senator Orville H. Platt (1827-1905). It replaced the earlier Teller Amendment.

The amendment ceded to the United States the naval base in Cuba (Guantánamo Bay), stipulated that Cuba would not transfer Cuban land to any power other than the United States, mandated that Cuba would contract no foreign debt without guarantees that the interest could be served from ordinary revenues, ensured U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs when the United States deemed necessary, prohibited Cuba from negotiating treaties with any country other than the United States "which will impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba" or "permit any foreign power or powers to obtain ... lodgement in or control over any portion" of Cuba, and provided for a formal treaty detailing all the foregoing provisions.

Later in 1901, under U.S. pressure, Cuba included the amendment's provisions in its constitution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Amendment

Just as the oil law was written in Washington, Cuba was forced to include the Platt Amendment in their Constitution. The United States would not grant Cuba independence or withdraw the occupation troops from the island unless the Cubans accepted the Platt Amendment.

The Platt Amendment was the source of anti-colonial and anti-American fervor in Cuba that long predated the Revolution of 1959. I expect that as in Cuba, the American written oil law will be the source of anti-American fervor in Iraq for generations to come.