Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Scacchiere petrolifero: Iraq, Russia, Francia, USA

Altri dati sulle ragioni della prossima aggressione USA contro l'Iraq,
e sulle motivazioni di Francia e Russia. Tutti gli interessi in gioco
sono post-legali ed irrazionali. Al solito. Shalom.
Namib
Per l'intero art.:
http://observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,805530,00.html
Scramble to carve up Iraqi oil reserves lies behind US diplomacy
Manoeuvres shaped by horsetrading between America, Russia and France
over control of untapped oilfields
Ed Vulliamy in New York, Paul Webster in Paris, and Nick Paton Walsh
in Moscow
Sunday October 6, 2002
The Observer
[...]
A Russian official at the United Nations in New York told the Observer
last week that the $7 billion in Soviet-era debt was not the main
'economic interest' in Iraq about which the Kremlin is voicing its
concerns. The main fear was a post-Saddam government would not honour
extraction contracts Moscow has signed with Iraq.
Russian business has long-standing interests in Iraq. Lukoil, the
biggest oil company in Russia, signed a $20bn contract in 1997 to
drill the West Qurna oilfield. Such a deal could evaporate along with
the Saddam regime, together with a more recent contract with Russian
giant Zarubezhneft, which was granted a potential $90bn concession to
develop the bin Umar oilfield. The total value of Saddam's foreign
contract awards could reach $1.1 trillion, according to the
International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2001.
The Russian official said his government believed the US had brokered
a deal with the coalition of Iraqi opposition forces it backs whereby
support against Saddam is conditional on their declaring - on taking
power - all oil contracts conceded under his rule to be null and void.
'The concern of my government,' said the official, 'is that the
concessions agreed between Baghdad and numerous enterprises will be
reneged upon, and that US companies will enter to take the greatest
share of those existing contracts... Yes, if you could say it that
way - an oil grab by Washington'.
A government insider in Paris told The Observer that France also
feared suffering economically from US oil ambitions at the end of a
war. But the dilemma for Paris is more complex. Despite President
Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany agreeing
last week to oppose changing the rules governing weapons inspectors,
France may back military action.
Government sources say they fear - existing concessions aside - France
could be cut out of the spoils if it did not support the war and show
a significant military presence. If it comes to war, France is
determined to be allotted a more prestigious role in the fighting than
in the 1991 Gulf war, when its main role was to occupy lightly
defended ground. Negotiations have been going on between the
state-owned TotalFinaElf company and the US about redistribution of
oil regions between the world's major companies.
Washington's predatory interest in Iraqi oil is clear, whatever its
political protestations about its motives for war. The US National
Energy Policy Report of 2001 - known as the 'Cheney Report' after its
author Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly one of America's richest
and most powerful oil industry magnates - demanded a priority on
easing US access to Persian Gulf supplies.
Doubts about Saudi Arabia - even before 11 September, and even more so
in its wake - led US strategists to seek a backup supply in the
region. America needs 20 million barrels of crude a day, and analysts
have singled out the country that could meet up to half that
requirement: Iraq.
The current high price of oil is dragging the US economy further into
recession. US control of the Iraqi reserves, perhaps the biggest
unmapped reservoir in the world, would break Saudi Arabia's hold on
the oil-pricing cartel Opec, and dictate prices for the next century.
This could spell disaster for Russian oil giants, keen to expand their
sales to the West. Russia has sought to prolong negotiations, official
statements going between opposition to any new UN resolution and
possible support for military action against an Iraqi regime proven to
be developing weapons of mass destruction.
[...]
Russia recognises potential benefits of reaching a deal with the US:
Saddam's regime is difficult to work with. Lukoil's billion-dollar
concessions are frozen and profitless to Moscow and Baghdad under UN
sanctions, leading to fears that Saddam might have declared the
agreement null and void out of spite. Iraqi diplomats say Zarubezhneft
won its $90bn contract only after Baghdad took it away from
TotalFinaElf because of French support for sanctions.
[...]

 sono post-legali ed irrazionali.
Oooops! Leggasi: "e *razionali*". Curioso lapsus... Shalom.
Namib