The Iraq Oil Law - Will It Fly?

From Roads to Iraq

How serious is the new Iraq oil law?

Question: What is the common theme among all Iraqi oil minsters after the occupation [4 or 5 ministers]?

Answer: All of them promised that oil production to reach 3-5 Million barrel a year, but it never reached even the production line before the occupation [the embargo years].

Yet Al-Maliki still promising people that the new oil law is for the benefit of the Iraqi citizens. Isam Al-Chalabi former Iraqi oil minister answers this:

Adoption of the oil law right now is the result of the U.S. insistence . they did not find anything else to announce at least any achievement.

The “Green Zone” government, SCIRI delivering Iraq’s Holy Grail to Bush/Cheney and Big Oil - in exchange for not being chased out of power by the Pentagon.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim who spent all his life calling America [The Big evil], is much more of a Bush ally than Maliki, who is from the Da’wa Party. No wonder SCIRI’s Badr Organization and their death squads were never the target of Bush death machine. Unlike Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army (Muqtada is against the oil law).

The SCIRI certainly listened to the White House, which has always made it very clear: any more funds to the Iraqi government are tied up with passing the oil law.

The question now is what is the meaning of a law, the “Green Zone” government can not be implement?

Group of Iraqi oil experts, studied the new law, and their conclusions are here in brief:

1.Timing - The current security situation is not proper to pass a law aiming foreign investments to improve the Iraqi economic situation.

How can foreign companies to take this law seriously, while it is impossible for them to go to Iraq?

Check for example the warning issued by Oil Employees in Basra:

We strongly warn all the foreign companies and foreign capital in the form of American companies against coming into our lands under the guise of production-sharing agreements.

Conclusion:

Iraqi oil law is just an ink on papers which will never see the light.

Source