U.S. Companies Shut Out as Iraq Auctions Its Oil Fields

U.S. Companies Shut Out as Iraq Auctions Its Oil Fields

news.yahoo.com

Those who claim that the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 to get control of the country's giant oil reserves will be left scratching their heads by the results of last weekend's auction of Iraqi oil contracts: Not a single U.S. company secured a deal in the auction of contracts that will shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Two of the most lucrative of the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts went to two countries which bitterly opposed the U.S. invasion - Russia and China - while even Total Oil of France, which led the charge to deny international approval for the war at the

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What happened to all that oil that supposed to belong to American companies that the U.S. govt. worked for?? I thought we are suppose to be conquerors, not charity organization. What the heck is going on here? What happened to that shadow govt. that can assassinate and overthrow govts. Where is the CIA??? This is not meeting my expectations of the American govt. that is suppose to be all cruel and evil.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by deltaboy


I wonder if this is just posturing by the US to save face internationally? The pre-invasion lies have been widely exposed. If they got the contracts, everyone wouls say, "see!!!", so they purposefully didn't get them to counter the international outcry. Seems like a pretty good idea.
Afghanistan is a different story. It can be defined as "just", so if they get some contracts on top of the ones they already have, the "taliban" threat can be used as a smokescreen.

My prediction is that the story will be quite different in Afghanistan when they "stabilize".
Maybe Bush really did go in because he thought Jesus was concerned over Iraq's long-term health, which was the 2nd in line excuse after wmd's were proven to be a fabricated issue.


[edit on 19-12-2009 by heyo]

We have a new government that believes that wind energy and other renewable sources of fictional energy will make oil obsolete.

Oil and coal will soon be completely obsolete.

We don't need Iraqi oil now.

Besides if all else fails this new super-powerful government can force all current and new unemployed Americans into energy production through mandatory hours of service through "pedal power electric energy generation" ... Just imagine the energy potential of millions of unemployed Americans all pedaling in unison for hours each day. And they could actually be earning their government assistance checks for a change while producing energy without any environmental damage.

Smart investors would all be investing heavily NOW in the future U.S. pedal power industry.

Not to mention aren't we still there?

I agree it sounds like they just passed on the auction, but to think they have no interest or plans is a bit lax.

The ppl that now own them or no more a threat to TPTB than the last owners.

reply to post by deltaboy
If your comment was posted on another site, I would take the context as tongue-in-cheek. But here on ATS I make no such assumptions so I honestly don't know if you're serious or not.

I never thought that the US was trying to grab the oil fields (even after reading claims it was) so what happened isn't surprising at all.

As much as I dislike being bogged down in Iraq and especially for such things as oil, this irks me even more. So the US does all the dirty work and the long-term contracts go to our superpower pseudo-enemies? I'd be a bit bothered to hear this as someone fighting over there; good thing I'd never fight these bogus wars.
Maybe the the money from these contracts which should go to the poor people of Iraq's government just filters into US pockets.

Now we should really pull out. Yet that base is there to stay. So the US is to ensure and "secure" long-term export of oil from Iraq to Russia and China? WTF?

Don't take everything at face value now.


Perhaps entities within the Chinese and Russian governments are buying oil for $2 and selling it out the backdoor to the US for $1.

Young men and women will continue to be maimed and killed in Irag for many years. Insurgents are just the name given to people tired of the foreigner occupation.
Young Americans caught in the middle of a religious/tribal war that has gone on for centuries.

Protecting the interest of international megacorp oil cabal. This war was never about WMD, Saddam, or bringing peace and stability to the region.
These were just a smoke screen of lofty phrases to sell the war to the Coalition of the Willing; And they bought it. Wars are always about money and resources.


Don't let your ideology or your patriotism get in the way of your common sense.

[edit on 19-12-2009 by whaaa]

The PTB are not American. The PTB are global elitists. The contracts are going to exactly who they were planned to go to. Anything unscripted in this world takeover would be too risky. I'm sure the PTB are sticking to the plan all the way through this.

Originally posted by IntastellaBurst


Don't take everything at face value now.


Perhaps entities within the Chinese and Russian governments are buying oil for $2 and selling it out the backdoor to the US for $1.

I bet you are right. Two countries that hate us are going to pay money and then sell it to somebody else for half price of what they paid....

Man that's just one evil scheme!

reply to post by deltaboy


Saddam - sells Oil in euros, US starts war, in 2009 US controls gov of Iraq setups oil trade only in dollars, it does not matter if no us companies trade in Iraq, it only matters if oil companies trade outside the dollar zone.

now the next war is with Iran, Iran will open a oil bourse that sells in Euros or something else. do you see why Americans and few other nations want sanctions. this is all due to American problem with China, China keeps giving aid to united states china buys and other countries buy American debt, the Americans can not keep the dollar drop if that happens everything goes down with it. so they Americans have done this all by them selves, they spend to much, little savings.

The US. can not pay back all that money so they must use the dollar for a very long term repayment system, its like all the interest on the dollar will be used to pay back the debt owned to other countries such as china, so yes, US is a evil little whore, Same with the UK they are on the same boat.

That is the strategy.the US public paid for the war in Iraq,Now the contracts are going to Russia and non US companies and this should rig a red flag for anyone who does a cursory analysis.


If I pay for something then I expect the principal+interest in return.

But what is happening is

US citizens--Pay for war --Returns are higher taxes and job losses,
Iraq oil contracts go to russia--Russia profits at the expense of US tax payers money and consolidates its position to the verge of monopoly.

Result is it raises the oil prices artifically by creating a scarcity hoax using the mainstream media which is a tool for brainwashing people.

Double profits to Russia(To be precise the corporations)

People from around the world are milked out of their money.

We should appreciate them for coming with a ingenius plan and we should be ashamed of ourselves of allowing this to happen by being passive ,not connecting the dots ,not making answerable to any of these.

We have no one but ourselves to blame for this.

reply to post by wiredamerican

That's a convenient write-off.
As much as I take interest in and subscribe to notions of a Globalist Elite, I'm always amazed at the litany of quick generalizations like this. Often people's premise is that they're manifesting their own future- like your take on this issue. I agree with this mostly yet your premise discounts any difference between interests of East and West or any other factions.
Basically, this position would have to accept that the Globalists control not only Western industry and government but also China's and Russia's. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this as I'd guess the Globalist network can't be this congruent and that there must exist some degree of factionalism within it.
I don't disagree with your statement but feel there needs to something to support this and at the end of the day there isn't enough evidence to prove or disprove it.

This news doesnt surprise me at all. I never thought the US was there for the oil to begin with. Anyway, how freaking obvious would it look if the US got all the oil deals? You folks REALLY didnt believe that is what it would look like do yo?

deltaboy

Don't go mucking up a perfectly good conspiracy theory with the facts.

You'll just stir up more convoluted theories.

www.reuters.com...

No U.S. firms bid for fields offered in the second round, and of the four fields bid on by U.S. firms in the first round, only Exxon Mobil won a major prize, leading a group to clinch a deal for the supergiant West Qurna Phase One field.

Not surprising china got a primo deal.. they practically own the US. I hear they actually purchased the rights to yank 30% of obamas strings.

Part of me hope the iraqis are pissed off at having their nation beaten into pablum, and are purposefully denying US companies out of spite. And, or, it wouldn't be cost effective for US companies due to security concerns... plus employees fearing for their life 24/7 would cause people to nut up, surely that would drive up insurance claims.

The Mega-Corporations are global entities not american ones.

You also owe a lot of people a lot of money, this is a means of paying that debt.

Dude, for a respected foe I thought you wouldnt take such a cheapshot.
Anyway,

Do you like dog and pony shows?

Only a simpleton would expect Iraq to give away its prized oilfields to America and the UK in a mass public showing that was full of other countries.

How on earth could the US Big OIL CEO's sit in this room hearing their companies winning field after field.. it would cause outrage, and they wouldnt be able to wash the blood from their greedy smiles.

Notice how if you google Iraq oil field contracts this story seems to be dominating? Its like google search results are rigged to show the same simpleton response.

See, America won its oil contracts outside of this no bid bullplop.

www.guardian.co.uk...

The American energy giant ExxonMobil today won the right to develop one of the world's most prized untapped oil reserves, in a $50bn (£30bn) deal that will entrench the company as one of the largest players in postwar Iraq.

Exxon was awarded a contract to extract oil from the West Qurna reservoir near Basra in Iraq's south during an extended tender process that has seen the Iraqi government partner foreign firms in a bid to get its reserves of oil out of the ground as cheaply and quickly as possible.

Where does West Qurna fit on the scheme of things?
Oh yeah, equal second.

But, thats ok, we'll forget that one for the sake of a biased argument. So lets look at YOUR article

BAGHDAD -- A consortium including Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Malaysia's Petronas was awarded a contract to redevelop Iraq's Majnoon oil field, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Friday.

Majnoon is one of the largest oil fields in the world and although the companies' fee for raising output is slim, it represents an important foothold in a country that potentially has massive untapped oil resources, said ING analyst Jason Kenney.

Royal Dutch Shell, is just as American and British as The Knicks and Manchester United.

en.wikipedia.org...

Shell is incorporated in the United Kingdom with its corporate headquarters in The Hague, its tax residence is in Netherlands, and its primary listings on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam (only "A" shares are part of the AEX index).

Shell operates in over 140 countries. In the United States, the Shell Oil Company subsidiary, headquartered in Houston, Texas is one of its largest businesses.

www.truthdig.com...

After a bidding war among 44 oil companies, Shell of the United Kingdom and Petronas of Malaysia have jointly won the right to 10 oil fields in Iraq, in the second such auction since the 2003 invasion. —JCL

Atleast the article above shows the truth '' Shell of the United Kingdom ''


But thats ok, Thats only 2 of the top 4 Oil fields. Surely someone OTHER than a US/UK company got a good one right? WRONG!

www.ft.com...

Rumaila, Iraq's second- biggest oil field and one that BP discovered in 1953, was the first of the country's eight fields to be auctioned on Tuesday. The auction marks the first time that foreigners have been offered access to Iraq's oil since nationalisation more than 30 years ago

BP was up against ExxonMobil

Exxon balked, but BP did not.

Holy crap dude, do you know now whats happening? your starting to look like one of the people who fell for this dog and pony show.
Understandable though, I mean, its the US government and UK government, you dont invade a nation and do something as stupid as openly parade the raping of their resources.

So, Ok, lets look and see what oilfields were won by foreign 'anti-war' countries.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b2a6893a0965.jpg[/atsimg]


Sorry dude, but you fell for the crap!

www1.voanews.com...

Contracts Awarded to Russian, Norwegian Firms on Last Day of Iraq Oil Auction

'' Lets just forget about ALL THE OTHER OILFIELD CONTRACTS ''








[edit on 21-12-2009 by Agit8dChop]