US AND British oil corporations have grabbed prime position in the jockeying to exploit Iraq’s oil resources.
The US puppet government in Iraq is negotiating two-year “no bid” contracts with five of the biggest Western oil corporations—Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP and Chevron.
Australian multinational BHP Billiton is also teaming with Shell for one of the contracts. The contracts are to provide “technical help” in increasing production in six of Iraq’s largest oil fields, according to the oil minister. But they put the winners in front of the almost forty oil companies bidding for long-term contracts over the oil fields, to be decided by late 2009.
