Mission Accomplished for Big Oil?
Greg Muttitt reports for Znet (August 24th): Here, as a start, is a little scorecard of what’s gone on in Iraq
since Big Oil arrived two and a half years ago: corruption’s skyrocketed; two Western oil companies are being investigated for
either giving or receiving bribes; the Iraqi government is paying oil companies a per-barrel
fee according to wildly unrealistic production targets they’ve set, whether or
not they deliver that number of barrels; contractors are heavily over-charging for drilling wells, which the companies don’t mind since the
Iraqi government picks up the tab.
Meanwhile, to protect the oil giants from dissent and protest,
trade union offices have been raided,
computers seized and equipment smashed, leaders arrested and prosecuted. And that’s just in the oil-rich southern part of the
country.
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