Iraq: The carve-up begins
(Last Friday the price of light sweet crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange for August delivery closed 16 cents short of $60/barrel – the highest price ever and an ironic outcome for the millions of Americans who believe that cheap oil was the reason for Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
Equally shocking to Americans was the announcement that China has outbid US oil giant Chevron for the American oil company,
Unocal.PCraig Roberts)

Tom Burgis
Thursday 23 June 2005

As the costs of the Iraq occupation spiral, British and American oil companies meet in secret next week to carve up the country's oil reserves for themselves. Tom Burgis reports

In the driving seat: with so much clear profit at stake, the question of who owns Iraq's biggest natural resource is hotly contended / Getty

The Iraq war has so far cost America and Britain £105billion. But the financial clawback is gathering pace as British and American oil giants work out how to get their hands on the estimated £3trillion worth of oil.

Executives from BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old firm, are expected to congregate at the Paddington Hilton for a two-day chinwag with top-level officials from Iraq's oil ministry. The gathering, sponsored by the British Government, is being described as the "premier event" for those with designs on Iraqi oil, and will go ahead despite opposition from Iraqi oil workers, who fear their livelihoods are being flogged to foreigners. The Met will be on hand to secure the venue ahead of the conference.

"This is a networking opportunity for UK businesses involved in Iraqi oil," explained Dr Hussain Rabia, managing director of the consultancy Entrac Petroleum Ltd. "We have the moral support of the UK government. They're bringing the guys over from Iraq, offering them visas. We expect all the big oil companies to be there," he said.

Delegate numbers are described as "confidential". Shell spokesman Simon Buerk would not confirm that a representative of the company would be attending, but said he "wouldn't be at all surprised if they were".

"We aspire to establish a long-term presence in Iraq," he said. "We have been helping the [Iraqi] Ministry of Oil and engineers with training."

Those who have purchased their £1,200 tickets can expect access to executives from Iraq's oil ministry, including Salem Razoky, the director general of exploration.

But Iraqi oil workers are furious about the conference. "The second phase of the war will be started by this conference carving up the industry," said an outraged Hasan Juma'a, head of the Iraqi General Union of Oil Employees. "It is about giving shares of Iraq to the countries who invaded it - they get a piece of the action as a reward. The British government will back this action in order to pay its debt in Iraq."

Hasan, who represents 23,000 skilled oil workers, fears that deals struck at the conference will see profits from Iraq's massive oil reserves - the second richest in the world - lining the pockets of multinational corporations at the expense of the Iraqi people.

Previous form suggests his concerns are well founded. Under the initial wage table drawn up by Paul Bremer's provisional Baghdad government in September 2003, oil workers were to receive a minimum monthly pay packet of £25. After a threatened union strike, it was raised to £38. And, Hasan insists, "Iraqi oil workers are good enough to rebuild without any need of help. "

Greg Muttitt, a researcher with Platform, an independent environmental think thank, agrees. "The decisions on how to carve up Iraq are being made behind closed doors in Washington, London and Baghdad.

"This conference is a key part of the plan to help multinational companies get stuck in once those arrangements are in place. It's a corporate feeding frenzy - they're not writing the recipes, they're tucking in their napkins."

Yahia Said, an Iraqi research fellow in global governance at the London School of Economics, commented:

"Iraq's oil is very cheap to extract. In the lack of transparency and with Iraq under occupation, people suspect oil companies are up to foul play. But those companies wouldn't yet dare sign a contract under the present government because it lacks legitimacy. But the oil companies are eyeing each other - this conference is like a dating game."

As such, a spokesperson for British governmental body UK Trade & Investment insisted that "no contracts will be awarded" at the conference. "Although we believe that British and other companies can play a key role, it will be up to the Iraqis, through their elected representatives to decide whether there is a role for them or not."

But the British government's position is in line with that of conference organisers, who point to Iraq's current oil output, which is stalled at 1.8million barrels per day, less than a third of what it could be.

"We all want to reconstruct Iraq," argued Rabia. "You can have all the demos you want, but 70 per cent of people in my country don't have sanitation. It's 45 degrees there now. I've listened to a lot of people and there's no way you can reconstruct without people from the UK and the US, and their money."

Iraqi oil workers lament lack of jobs

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Portland activists and labor leaders hear two visitors talk of hurdles for unions, the toll from war and violence Thursday, June 23, 2005 KRIS KODRICH

Two Iraqi labor leaders who visited Portland on Wednesday know firsthand that Iraqis still desperately need jobs despite U.S. efforts to fix their battered country.

"Where are these job opportunities? I have three daughters, all college graduates, sitting at home," said Hassan Juma'a Awad Al Asade, an oil worker on a visit to the Port of Portland.

Later, at Portland City Hall, Faleh Abbood Umara, another oil worker, said his 21-year-old daughter is also without a job, but optimistically noted that she soon will marry and move out of his house.

Part of a national tour by Iraqi labor leaders, Al Asade, 53, and Umara, 47, both leaders of Iraq's General Union of Oil Employees, spent the day in Portland meeting with activists and labor leaders.

Oregon longshoremen welcomed the Iraqis with a pledge to work together globally to thwart any anti-worker efforts of multinational corporations or President Bush.

"Your struggle is our struggle," said Leal Sundet, president of Local 8 of the International Longshoreman's and Warehousemen's Union. "It is the same government and the same corporations that are exploiting you that exploit us."

Tim Nesbitt, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, told the Iraqis that any democratic movement needs to include the right of workers to organize and form unions.

Speaking through translators, the two gray-haired Iraqis -- Al Asade sporting a neatly trimmed beard and a short-sleeved shirt, Umara wearing glasses and a long-sleeved shirt with a button reading "Workers' rights are human rights" -- recounted the struggle of Iraqi labor unions, which Saddam Hussein banned but which re-emerged following his overthrow.

The Iraqi oil workers union has opposed privatization of public-sector industries and has helped force higher wages for oil workers. The union also helped dockworkers in Iraq in their struggle against foreign firms that had brought in foreign workers to do the work.

In the past, President Bush has promised more support for free labor unions in the Middle East. In Iraq, however, workers still technically don't have the right to form unions in the public sector, Al Asade said.

The Iraqi labor leaders also made it clear where they stand on the ongoing violence in Iraq.

"We believe American forces must withdraw immediately," Al Asade said outside the Port's Terminal 6. "We want to rebuild our country as Iraqis."

Activists and others struggled to hear Al Asade over the roar of trucks making their way in and out of the facility, and even an occasional jet taking off from Portland International Airport.

The two Iraqis blamed the U.S. government for the violence in Iraq. "Everything that is happening in Iraq is caused by the occupation," Al Asade said. But he was optimistic that things would improve if the United States pulled out. "Iraq will be rebuilt because Iraqis care about Iraq." Umara added he didn't think a civil war would result "because all Iraqis are brothers."

The Oregon AFL-CIO, along with more than 50 Portland area labor, religious and community organizations, sponsored the Portland visit. Besides the West Coast tour of the oil workers, four other Iraqi labor leaders are traveling to other parts of the country. Before going to Seattle, the two Iraqis talked Wednesday night at Portland State University.

During a meeting with Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams and Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz, the Iraqis talked about the removal of Saddam from power. "It was a good thing, but it should not have been done this way," Al Asade said. "I think to destroy a country and to destroy the infrastructure of a country is not a nice thing."

Kris Kodrich: 503-221-8100; kriskodrich@news.oregonian.com
Photographs: www.indymedia.org.uk