Sunday 3 November 2002

This just gets better and better...

Russian And US Economies Want Opposite Outcome In Iraq

With his fate presumably in the hands of the Bush administration, Saddam Hussein is doing what he does best: surviving.

The Iraqi leader, realizing that American intervention could bring his rule to an end, has been winning friends in Western Europe and Russia by offering large, generous oil deals to powerful countries who are in a position to make a U.S. invasion more difficult.

Iraq has 110 billion barrels of oil reserves, second largest only to Saudi Arabia. Iraq's granting of large oil deals to politically important countries is cutting American companies out.

While U.N. sanctions do not allow foreign companies to invest in Iraqi oilfields, companies are still allowed to enter into deals with Iraq that will go into effect once the sanctions have been lifted.

Worried about losing market share, American oil companies are pushing the Bush administration to remove Saddam from power. By removing Saddam from power, the new U.S. supported regime will give the most lucrative oil deals to American oil firms rather than European and Russian firms.

Full story...