spread the word IRAQ NAM's recent diary on Death in Diyala attracted some comments on the new oil law in Iraq. From those comments/links, I’ll try to present the situation. However, I’m no expert, so comments and opinions are very welcome. The law has not yet been passed, but it appears to be well on its way. It is very controversial.
Hat tips:
- Theghostofkarlafayetucker for excerpts from a RealClearPolitics interview with Condi Rice (which I’m unable to access), 19 April 2007
- truong son traveler for excerpts from and link to the Asia Times Online’s article Selling Iraq by the Barrel by Emad Mekay, 02 March 2007
- yours truly for link to Raed Jarrar's blog entry, 23 April 2007: The new oil law will increase violence in Iraq.
Raed Jarrar has blogged several times about this law, and he translated one leaked version to English. He says that:
this law is in violation of existing U.S. Public Law No: 109-234 that says: "To provide that no funds made available by title I of this Act may be made available to establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq or to exercise control by the United States over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq." U.S. contractors, such as Bearing Point, have been working with the U.S. State Department to draft the Iraqi Oil law and the State Department has been pushing for the privatization of Iraq’s oil in plans dating as far back as 2002.
The argument within Iraq according to Jarrar is between the separatists and the nationalists, with Shia, Sunni and Kurds in both camps:
The separatists, supported by the USA, are for this law; more important to them than keeping the oil revenues in Iraq is giving power to (three or more) regions and provinces.
The nationalists feel that passing this or any oil law is not an urgent item. It threatens Iraq’s unity. It takes decisions out of Iraqi hands which will lead to exclusion from OPEC, both the control of the limits of production and of the authority to resolve disputes. It puts foreigners on the Federal Oil and Gas Council with power to approve any contract even if its terms contradict existing laws. And, of course, the foreign companies are guaranteed income which in other oil-rich countries is reserved for the government.
Last month, according to Jarrar,
[o]ne of the MPs participating in the Amman-Jordan conference said that "this law must be rejected as whole, there is no way it can be enhanced or fixed".
Asia Times reports:
Ewa Jasiewicz, a researcher at Platform, a British human-rights and environmental group that monitors the oil industry, said: "First of all, it hasn't been put together in any kind of democratic process. It's been put through a war and an occupation, which in itself is a grotesquely undemocratic process."
[snip]
"The hydrocarbon law reflects the process of readying Iraq's oil for privatization," said Jasiewicz, "drafted in secret, shaped by foreign powers, untransparent, undemocratic and forced through under military occupation."
Jasiewicz said the law can be regarded as the economic goal of the war and occupation and that "it will be viewed by most Iraqis as not just illegitimate, but a war crime".
[snip]
... critics, including Iraqi oil professionals, engineers and union technicians, are instead calling for technical service contracts, meaning a company would come in and offer services such as building a refinery, laying a pipeline, or offering consultancy services, get its fees and then leave.
"It is a much more equitable relationship because the control of production, the development of oil, will stay with the Iraqi state," said Jasiewicz.
"That is the model that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait generally operate. There's no other country in the Middle East with the kind of oil reserves that Iraq has that would consider signing a production-sharing agreement," she said. "It's a form of privatization, and that's why those countries haven't signed these, because it's not in their interests."
While many Iraqis, including officials and labor union leaders, have spoken strongly against the draft law, Condi Rice says:
[P]assing the oil law is very, very important because it says we’re going to share the wealth of this country in an evenhanded way. Nobody’s going to take advantage of others in this society because you don’t happen to have oil resources in your part of the country; you’re going to somehow be disadvantaged. That’s what this is really about and that’s why it’s so critical to Iraq as a unified entity.
Karla Faye’s ghost comments:
The fact is troops are being pulled to OIL PROTECTION POSITIONS.
Look at the maps and figure [it] out-
All the lives and money,
NEVER saying Oil was the reason,
and new bases are now built along a line which sure resembles the oil resources and pipeline routes.....
Both Jarrar and Asia Times warn that people’s view of the process of drafting the law and its skewing in favor of foreign firms may increase tension and violence in Iraqi society. "Union leaders have complained that they, along with other civil-society groups, were left out of the drafting process despite US claims that it has created a functioning democracy in Iraq," says Asia Times.