“Preoccupy the Iraqi Oil.” America Is Counting Down the Attack

▽The secret get together of American oil companies and Iraqi antiestablishment organizations=The Observer, which is the Sunday edition of the British daily Guardian, reported that the Chair of the Iraqi National Convention (INC), which is a pro-American antiestablishment organization, Ahmad Salabi secretly discussed the distribution of the Iraqi oil with unidentified high ranking officials of 3 American oil companies in Washington last month.

It backs up the assertion that America tries to establish a pro-American government through the Iraqi War and preoccupy the Iraqi oil, which is up to 112 billion barrels. The Observer analyzed that America was trying to collapse the OPEC system, which was not friendly with her after securing the initiative of the market with the Iraqi oil.

The Chair Salabi practically acknowledged that it promised America privileges in return of overturning the Sadam Hussein`s regime by saying, “American companies will have priorities over the Iraqi oil.”

▽The oil companies of other countries that are being strained=Russia, France, and China is checking America by stopping the US leading UN Resolution against Iraq, and at the same time, they started to secure their shares in the Iraqi oil market. The Observer reported that the oil companies of those 3 countries signed the tens of billions of oil trade contracts in last month only.

Russia, 40% of whose total exports are oil, becomes imminent. The Luke Oil, which is the biggest oil company in Russia, plans to build a 100,000-barrel a day-sized oil-producing base in Kurna in western Iraq.

Russia urgently sent diplomats to Washington on August 29th and showed her worry about the chance of excluding Russia in the Iraqi oil market. The Tatneft of a Russian Commonwealth Tatarstan also dispatched technicians to Iraq recently to dig oil wells.

The TotalFinaElf of France put its hands on negotiating with Iraq to develop oil wells in Nahr Umar. The Eni of Italy and the Repsol-YPF of Spain also signed the Iraqi oil export contracts. The British Petroleum (BP) of the UK made its oil field development plan official on last 29th by saying, “Everyone should have the fair chance about Iraqi oil project.”

▽The black-market dealings of the Iraqi oil is also prevalent=the News Week (published on the 11th) reported that despite the embargo of the importation by America, the black-market dealings of oil was openly done to keep the oil price low with connivance of western countries. It is estimated that Iraq made 2.3 billion dollars (2.76 trillion won) in black-market dealings of oil since 1997. Out of the daily Iraqi oil exportation, 30~50% slip into America through black-market dealings, and it is 8% of the American oil consumption.

This magazine added that the oil companies were dealing with Iraq through secret accounts in Switzerland or Liechtenstein and middlemen to avoid the tracing of the government.

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