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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 13 May 4 - 10, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
American
To Oversee Iraqi Oil Industry By
David Teather Back
to Alternative Reader Index
The
US is preparing to install an American chairman on a planned management team of
the Iraqi oil industry, providing further ammunition to critics who have
questioned the Bush administration's agenda in the Middle East. The
administration is planning to structure the potentially vast Iraqi oil industry
like a US corporation, with a chairman and chief executive and a 15-strong board
of international advisers. According
to a report in the Wall Street Journal, it has lined up the former chief
executive of the US division of Royal Dutch/Shell, Philip Carroll, to take the
job of chairman. Large
scale decisions on investment, capital spending and production are likely to
need the approval of the advisory board, which will act like a board of
directors. The day-to-day management team will be vetted by US officials and is
likely to be made up of existing and expatriate Iraqi oil officials. The
structure is likely to anger opponents of the administration who argue that the
US is wielding too much power in Iraq. By
involving non-Iraqis, the US could also expose itself to the accusation that it
is attempting to take control of the industry and open the door to foreign
investment by major western oil companies - a perception the Bush administration
is keen to avoid. The
Middle East has, since the early-to-mid-1970s, largely closed the door on
foreign oil firms - but contracts have been awarded to engineering and
construction firms such as Bechtel, which was recently handed a $600m (L380m)
commission in Iraq by the US Agency for International Development. US
and Iraqi engineers have resumed modest oil production in the south of the
country, in fields close to Basra. The
other major field in the north, near Kirkuk, has yet to be restarted, but is
expected to begin pumping oil in the next few days. The Basra fields produced
60% of Iraq's pre-war production of around 2.5m barrels a day. The
US is pushing for an end to economic sanctions to allow the oil to be freely
exported. A
handful of Iraqi oil officials have been attempting to restore some order to the
country's energy infrastructure and have been meeting regularly with the US
military in Baghdad. The US has been eager to get the cooperation of the skilled
Iraqi oil administration, but an attempt to impose a structure on the industry
with outside involvement could cause friction. The
oil minister in the ousted Saddam regime, Amer Mohammed Rasheed, is on the US's
most-wanted list. Iraq,
with 112bn barrels of proven reserves, is second only to Saudi Arabia, and has
the potential to become a superpower in the oil industry. Experts believe that
with billions of dollars of investment in the nation's crippled infrastructure
it could produce up to 6m barrels a day within five or six years. There are
believed to be 200bn barrels of probable reserves. The
oil beginning to pump in Iraq is being used for domestic purposes. Once exports
are up and running again, US and British officials have said the aim is to put
the proceeds into a fund to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq. But details of
the fund, including who would administer it, have been scant. The
new management team and part of the advisory board are expected to be named next
week. The chief executive would play a similar role to the former oil minister
and would represent Iraq at meetings of Opec, the organisation of oil exporting
nations. The position of vice chairman is expected to be filled by Fadhil Othman,
who led Iraq's oil marketing group before Saddam came to power 24 years ago. Thamir
Gadhban, a senior oil ministry official working to restore order to the industry
in Baghdad, told the Journal that he expected the chief executive to come from
the ranks of the existing hierarchy. "The Iraqi oil industry is not a new
one, and there are experienced people in the ministry of oil and its
organisations," he said. April
26, 2003 Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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