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Will Iraq repeat Russia’s oil mistakes?
By Greg Muttitt, PLATFORM Published in al-Sabah al-Jadeed, October 2006 Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani announced last week that he aimed to sign oil production contracts with foreign companies by the end of next year. Notably, the announcement was made in Australia – like most of the significant statements of Iraqi oil policy, it was…
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George’s oil Dubya-speak
As decision-time approaches, the USA pulls levers on Iraqi oil policy – This report was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, issue 5. “The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It’s their asset,” declared George W. Bush in a press conference on the White House lawn in June. He had just returned from his…
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Energy Security – for whom?
Some commentators saw this summer’s G8 meeting in St. Petersburg as a clash of empires, with Vladimir Putin using the theme of “energy security” to reassert Russia’s global power. What has received less attention is how the concept is intended to bring ever-increasing supplies of energy to all of the G8 countries, potentially at the…
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George’s Oil Dubya-speak
As decision-time approaches, the USA pulls levers on Iraqi oil policy. “The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It’s their asset,” declared George W. Bush in a press conference on the White House lawn in June. He had just returned from his surprise visit to Baghdad, in which oil had been one of the main…
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The Fight for Oil in Africa’s Last Colony
Natalie Sharples of War on Want explores oil and independence in Western Sahara – This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web Newsletter Issue 5. Over the past decade, Western Sahara’s struggle for independence from Morocco has played out through resource politics. With potential offshore oil and gas reserves, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)…
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Oil privatisation through the back door
Originally published in niqash.org In a survey in July 2003, Baghdad residents were asked what they thought was the main reason for America and Britain to go to war in Iraq. The most popular answer, with 47% of responses, was “to secure oil supplies”. At first glance, it would seem that America and Britain have…
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For whom, the wells drilled?
Originally published in niqash.org The debate over national vs. regional control of Iraq’s oil sector intensified last week, as the new Natural Resources Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) stated his opposition to amending the oil-related articles of the Constitution. In his first public statement since his appointment, Dr Ashti Hawrami argued that, “the…
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The black gold rush
Originally published on niqash.org It is an old cliché that politics is too important to be left to the politicians. But are new moves to decide the future shape of Iraq’s oil industry happening too fast to achieve public consensus – on issues that could both redraw the map and rewrite the history of Iraq?…
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Of Oil, War and Power – Learning From History
One year before he became US Vice President, Dick Cheney told an audience of oil company executives in London that, “[b]y 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day … While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the…
