1. Defense Secretary Gates, in Iraq this week, reviewed key milestones the Iraqi government needs to accomplish; these include passing the new hydrocarbon law that was presented to the Iraqi cabinet not long ago. (The urgency of this law is one of the few points of agreement between the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group and the Bush administration).
http://cbs4denver.com/nationalpolitics/politicsnational_story_109155424.html Gates In Iraq: Patience Running Out (CBS News) BAGHDAD U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates landed in Baghdad on Thursday to deliver a sharp message to Iraqi political leaders: The U.S. military's commitment to the war is not open-ended.
"The clock is ticking," Gates told reporters, saying he will warn Iraqi officials that they must move faster on political reconciliation. "I know it's difficult, and clearly the attack on the council of representatives has made people nervous, but I think that it's very important that they bend every effort to getting this legislation done as quickly as possible." ...Gates said the Iraqis must, as quickly as possible, push through legislation on political reconciliation and the sharing of oil revenues among the Sunni, Shiites and Kurds.
"It's not that these laws are going to change the situation immediately, but I think ... the ability to get them done communicates a willingness to work together," he said. Those efforts, Gates said, would, in turn, create an environment in which violence could be reduced...
Iraq's hotly debated draft oil law is to be sent to parliament next week, the country's oil minister said on Wednesday.
2. New information on Iraq's oil reserves is surprising: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/271226/1/.html Iraq's oil reserves could double current estimates 19 April 2007 LONDON: Iraq's oil reserves could be almost twice as vast as current estimates, and its production could also double in five years, a report from consultancy IHS has showed, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
According to the business daily, the report, which it said was the most comprehensive independent survey of Iraq's resources since the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003, noted that such developments were dependent on an improving security situation in the Middle Eastern country.
"Obviously the security situation is very bad, but when you look at the sub-surface opportunity, there isn't anywhere like this," Ron Mobed, the head of IHS's energy division, was quoted as saying by the FT.
"Geologically, it's right up there, a gold star opportunity."
3. The new Iraqi hydrocarbon law, unlike all other oil arrangements in that part of the world, will open up oil exploration and development to multinational firms through an arrangement known as the production sharing agreement (PSA):
About production sharing agreements http://www.carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=58&parent=4&link=Y&gp=3 ...these advantages now appear to make PSAs the Western method of choice for future development of the Iraqi oil industry.
But the cost to Iraq could be severe. PLATFORM's research estimates that the use of PSAs could cost Iraq net revenue of up to $200 billion (seven times current GDP), compared to keeping oil in public hands. Furthermore, they could deprive Iraq of democratic control over its most important natural resource:
PSAs fix the economic terms for 25-40 years, preventing future elected governments from changing their taxes or other economic policies. They deprive governments of control over the development of their oil industry, instead giving key economic decisions such as the depletion rate to the foreign companies. They generally over-ride any current or future legislation that compromises company profitability , effectively limiting the government's ability to regulate. They commonly specify that any disputes between the government and the foreign companies will be resolved not in national courts but in secretive international arbitration tribunals which will not consider the Iraqi public interest. It seems that if PSAs are signed in Iraq - as key politicians, under pressure from the UK and USA, are keen to do - the country could be surrendering its democracy as soon as achieving it.
An injury to one is an injury to all http://www.iww.org/
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