BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials declared Tuesday that the interim government has assumed full control of the country's oil industry ahead of the June 30 handover of sovereignty from the U.S.-led occupation administration.
"Today the most important natural resource has been returned to Iraqis to serve all Iraqis," Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said. "I'm pleased to announce that full sovereignty and full control on oil industry has been handed over to the oil ministry today and to the new Iraqi government as of today."
The announcement came as Allawi and Oil Minister Thamir Ghadbhan toured the al-Doura oil refinery in southern Baghdad.
After meeting and shaking hands with the refinery workers, the two ministers thanked oil sector workers.
"We are totally now in control, there are no more advisers," Ghadbhan said. "We are running the show, the oil policies will be implemented 100 percent by Iraqis."
Allawi said the handover of the oil ministry before June 30 reflects "our full confidence in the oil minister. It's evidence that oil ministry has worked perfectly."
Referring to the former regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), Allawi said that "in the past, Iraqi oil was used in building palaces, buying weapons to achieve one person's goals."
Iraq (news - web sites) has the world's second largest oil reserves, with more than 110 billion barrels of crude oil and about 100,000 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, Allawi said.
A force has been established solely for the protection of the oil infrastructure, made up of about 14,000 guards.
Your opinions of how important a thread are aren't any reason to spam the board, theski.
Regardless, whatever the position of the "blood for oil crowd" actually is, an undoubted US objective in invading Iraq was bringing its oil reserves under its control. Note: this does *not* mean mere access to oil (i.e. the "you're wrong, because we could've just bought from Saddam")- nor does it mean outright seizure of oil- it means control of the oil of a friendly-to-the-US government- reliable supply.
Anyone who denies Iraq's oil as part of the equation when they decided to do this is kidding himself.
Oh, and claiming the US has lost control of the oil when the entire government has been picked by the US in the first place is ... odd.
Vympel wrote:Oh, and claiming the US has lost control of the oil when the entire government has been picked by the US in the first place is ... odd.
Where's that article you posted here, about the US plan to slowly never really hand over full sovrienty to Iraq? It was quite good.
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Η ζωή, η ζωή εδω τελειώνει!
"Science is one cold-hearted bitch with a 14" strap-on" - Masuka 'Dexter'
"Angela is not the woman you think she is Gabriel, she's done terrible things"
"So have I, and I'm going to do them all to you." - Sylar to Arthur 'Heroes'
You must be even dumber than I'd previously thought. Are you seriously suggesting that gaining some sort of control over Iraq's oil supply wasn't a big part of the reason for invading them? Jesus, even Axis Kast admits that much.
Oh, that's right. We were there solely to free the Iraqi people.
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Isn't Iraq holding free elections in six months? And can't the new Iraqi government tell the US or any other international forces to leave?
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Vympel wrote:Regardless, whatever the position of the "blood for oil crowd" actually is, an undoubted US objective in invading Iraq was bringing its oil reserves under its control.
Then why are we importing oil from the surrounding region at $500m
every 3 months so Iraqis can have 5 cent a gallon gasoline?
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
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Vympel wrote:Regardless, whatever the position of the "blood for oil crowd" actually is, an undoubted US objective in invading Iraq was bringing its oil reserves under its control.
Then why are we importing oil from the surrounding region at $500m
every 3 months so Iraqis can have 5 cent a gallon gasoline?
Does the word "control" come together with the hidden implication "use it now"?
BoredShirtless wrote:Does the word "control" come together with the hidden implication "use it now"?
Then why did we just turn over the Oil ministry to the Iraqis and remove
all the advisors?
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
BoredShirtless wrote:Does the word "control" come together with the hidden implication "use it now"?
Then why did we just turn over the Oil ministry to the Iraqis and remove
all the advisors?
Shh, you'll blow our cover, Sheppard!
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
Seriously, I'd rather have the Iraqis giving us our oil thatn those
fundie fucks in Saudi Arabia. Let them try eating oil.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
desertjedi wrote:Isn't Iraq holding free elections in six months? And can't the new Iraqi government tell the US or any other international forces to leave?
There was something posted a little while ago. The article said that there were UN resolutions in place to keep the USA/UK troops in Iraq. And that the Iraqi government would be unable to order them to leave.
M1891/30: A bad day on the range is better then a good day at work.
BoredShirtless wrote:Does the word "control" come together with the hidden implication "use it now"?
Then why did we just turn over the Oil ministry to the Iraqis and remove
all the advisors?
If you're trying to say actual Americans have to be in the new interim government in order to apply influence from Washington, you're a very naive person. Do you think France had any say in the makeup of the new government? Germany? China? No. The new government was green lighted by the United States and Britain; the new government will kowtow to the people who got them there. That is the nature of regime change by a superpower. "Puppet government" ring any bells? The Shah of Iran ring any bells? Apologise in advance if my post is not coherent, I'm sucking down my fourth bottle of piss.
Plekhanov wrote:
Isn't Saudi actually quite a large exporter of wheat? I thought they had a bit of a food surplus
WTF? Isn't the country like 99.9% burning desert?
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I don’t know about 99.9% but it’s not really the ideal agricultural environment, it’s a massively subsidised, badly thought out scheme but for the time being anyway they are overall exporters of food.
Farming
The sector contributes approximately 7 per cent to GDP and employs 4 per cent of the labour force. Agricultural produce accounts for only around 5 per cent of non-oil exports.
Agricultural development projects have helped Saudi Arabia achieve self-sufficiency in wheat, eggs, some dairy products and vegetables. The development of water desalination plants is crucial to future development.
The role of agriculture in the overall economy is being re-evaluated. Subsidies have created large surpluses of wheat while agricultural production has depleted scarce water supplies.
The agricultural sector is heavily subsidised and accounts for 90 per cent of Saudi Arabia's 14–16 billion cubic metres of annual water consumption. In 1997, the government subsidised 30–50 per cent of irrigation costs. This policy of agricultural expansion has come under heavy criticism, as some 3,000 tonnes of water is required to produce one tonne of wheat, most of which is then exported. At present rates of depletion, fossil water sources are not expected to last more than 20 years. The importance of conservation and subsidy reduction to slow water demand is clear, but this needs to be balanced against the need to expand Saudi Arabia's agricultural output.
The Kingdom's 28,000 grain farmers receive some US$2 billion in subsidies and produce enough wheat to meet national demand. The government has attempted to diversify from wheat to barley production, 3.5 million tonnes of which is imported each year. Diversification has also focussed on developing vegetable production, particularly tomatoes, melons, potatoes and onions.
Most agricultural activity is north of Riyadh in Qasim, Hail and Al-Jauf areas and on a smaller scale in Wadi Dawasir and Abha. Despite significant growth in agricultural production, Saudi Arabia increasingly relies on imports to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population
Plekhanov wrote:
Isn't Saudi actually quite a large exporter of wheat? I thought they had a bit of a food surplus
They do, it's amazing where you can farm if you throw billions of dollars and lots of cheep energy at the problem. The Saudi desert is filled with random farms in the middile of nowhere fed via piping from costal desalinization plants. It was all setup in the late 70's and earlt 80's, when the Kingdom was simply swimming with money.
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/end historical humor
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