Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Cabinet Readies Iraqi Oil for Privatisation

PLATFORM | 01.03.2007 12:47 | Iraq | Workers' Movements | Birmingham

Iraq’s Cabinet has just approved a Hydrocarbon Law which will allow foreign companies control over Iraq’s oil for the first time in 35 years.

Foreign oil companies and the British and US governments have been reviewing and commenting on the law for the past 8 months. Iraqi Parliamentarians are seeing it for the first time this month.

Hands Off Iraqi Oil!
Hands Off Iraqi Oil!


The law allows Iraqi oil to be developed by foreign companies under long term contracts which will give them exclusive rights. These are likely to be contracts known as Production Sharing Agreements. Due to the surrounding controversy, the term Production Sharing Agreement has been dropped in favour of Exploration and Risk Contracts. ERCs are thought to be the equivalent of PSAs under a different name.

Ewa Jasiewicz, Researcher and campaigner at PLATFORM: said: ‘The law’s unfair, untransparent and undemocratic provisions reflect the influence and interests of external actors; namely the US and British governments and foreign oil companies. As a document it makes history and marks a milestone in a historical process that has been pushed through by war and occupation. It is the sell off and rip off of Iraq’s oil by foreign companies’.

Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi, the leader of Iraq’s most powerful oil union ‘The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions’ says: ‘Those who spread the word that the oil sector will not improve except with foreign capital and production-sharing are dreaming. They must think again, since we know for certain that these plans do not serve the sons and daughters of Iraq.’

The following concerns have been raised:

• A Surrender of Sovereignty: Article 41 legislates for any disputes between foreign companies and Iraqi authorities which cannot be resolved through negotiation to be resolved ‘through arbitration or the competent authority’. In practice this means through a secretive and remote international arbitration tribunal – over riding domestic law. Iraq will not have the power to intervene using its own judicial system.

• Parliament By-passed With revenues (article 11) as with contracts, there is no provision for Parliamentary scrutiny. Fields such as West Qurna and Majnoon could each alone account for up to 10% of all government revenue. As such, the terms of these developments should be subject to Parliamentary debate as they are in many other countries.

• No Guarantee of State Participation: No minimum level has been set for state participation in contracts. For a country as well endowed with resources and technical skills as Iraq, a high minimum threshold would have been expected. Article 35 allows companies unlimited transfer of profits outside of Iraq. This could restrict the government’s ability to manage financial crises.

• Sectarianised Decision-Making: The newly created Federal Oil and Gas Council will decide which contracts are accepted. The Prime Minister, in consultation with the main parties is likely to decide its composition. All decisions on the fairness of the contracts and whether they serve Iraqis’ interests will be completely removed from public or parliamentary scrutiny. As with the structure of the current government, grown from the original sectarian composition of the Governing Council of June 2003, the Federal Oil and Gas Council will be sectarianised, leading to regional and sectarian agendas impacting on national economic policy. Iraqi oil union leader Hassan Jumaa comments: ‘We believe this law to be more political than economic; it threatens to set governorate against governorate and region against region’.

• Iraqi Companies Undermined: Foreign companies are only ‘encouraged’ to co-operate with Iraqi companies and purchase goods and services from them ‘whenever they are competitive’ (Art 9) Iraqis should only be employed ‘to a reasonable extent’. Normally contracts specify minimum Iraqi content and employment and minimum levels of training and technology transfer.

• Lack of Transparency: The previous requirement to have contracts published 2 months after signing has been dropped, requiring only ‘financially significant’ contracts to be published, with no time limit.

• Limited Regulatory Space: The definition of ‘good oil field practices’ (Art 4. Def 4) including relating to health and safety and environmental standards is equated to what oil companies think is right. This could seriously restrict the regulatory influence of the Iraqi government .

A campaign coalition 'Hands Off Iraqi Oil' spanning the US, UK and Italy is firming up to fight this oil grab.

Watch this space for more news soon:  http://www.handsoffiraqioil.org

Links: Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions  http://www.basraoilunion.org

PLATFORM
- Homepage: http://www.carbonweb.org/iraq

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech