Political activists say Royal Dutch Shell threatens to trigger greater conflict in Iraq with plans to control the development, production, and depletion of the country’s oil.
The warning from a coalition called Hands Off Iraqi Oil came as Shell held its annual meeting amid alleged “resistance” to the company’s “bid to assume control over oil reserves.”
Protestors from the coalition, including War on Want, Platform, Voices UK, and Iraq Occupation Focus, planned to demonstrate outside the annual meeting in London and question the board of directors inside.
In the view of the protestors, Shell wants “a controlling stake in the Kirkuk oil field, Iraq’s oldest and second largest producing field, and the site of deteriorating ethnic violence, as well as the Maysan field in the south of Iraq, and the Akkas gas field in Iraq’s Anbar province.”
Campaigners warn that “Iraq would lose billions of pounds in oil income under a proposed new law which the British and US governments are pressing the Baghdad administration to sign.”
Foreign domination?
Iraqi trade unions say the law will allow oil companies, such as Shell and BP, to secure power over new oil fields for 25 years, with the country’s economy run by overseas firms.
Platform Codirector Greg Muttitt said: “Shell’s rush to grab hold of Iraq’s resources, whilst the country is still occupied, is likely to bring greater bloodshed to Iraq. The lives and livelihoods of ordinary Iraqis are being further threatened because of corporate greed.”
There seem to be some non-sequiturs here. Worse, such statements fly in the face of facts because the Iraqi government itself recognizes that international oil companies (IOCs) represent the best way for the country to develop its hydrocarbons.
“The state simply cannot do this thing right,” said Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. “We can regulate it, but we need private investment to develop Iraq’s production capacities,” Salih told a group of delegates last week at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Reputable IOCs
At the time, Salih told The Times of London that new exploration showed his country has the world’s largest oil reserves, with as much as 350 billion bbl.
The figure is triple the country’s present proved reserves and exceeds that of Saudi Arabia’s estimated 264 billion bbl of oil.
Salih said the new estimate had been based on recent geological surveys and seismic data compiled by “reputable, international oil companies...This is a serious figure from credible sources.”
He is frustrated that Iraq still struggles over the establishment of a regulatory framework. “There is a real debate in the government and among political leaders about the type of oil management structures we should have,” Salih said. “I am for liberalizing this sector and allowing the private sector to come in to develop these vast resources.”
Tell that to the protestors who oppose Shell’s efforts to develop Iraq’s oil.