Thirty-six years after Western oil giants were ejected from Iraq by Saddam Hussein, the Iraq Oil Ministry has awarded two-year, no-bid contracts to the same companies. The deals with U.S.-based ExxonMobil and Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Total, and Great Britain’s BP are for oil-field repair work and technical support, but give these companies the inside track to securing enormously lucrative oil-drilling licenses. Iraq’s vast oil fields remain largely undeveloped, with some experts estimating that $30 trillion of oil still lies under its sands. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. played no role in securing the deals, though Americans still advise the Iraq Oil Ministry.
In Washington, a group of Democratic senators sought to block final approval of the contracts. The lawmakers said in a letter to Rice that contracts should not be awarded until Iraq enacts a long-delayed law aimed at assuring that oil riches are equitably divided among Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. Without such a law, said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, Iraq could become “one of these petro-feudal states, with different factions warring for the oil.”
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