By Pakinam Amer, dpa
First Published: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 06:06:46 GMT
Cairo - While Iraq's political parties are failing to reach a compromise on the hotly-debated oil and gas draft law, oil workers in oil-rich Basra continue almost daily protests, branding themselves ”the defenders of the country's oil.”
Basra's oil workers' union is uncompromisingly setting itself against the law, approved by Iraq's cabinet but stalled in parliament.
The trade union believes that a deluge of foreign contractors would gradually but eventually lead to the privatization of the oil sector, a notion it vehemently opposes.
A landmark political and economic step, the debated law will decide over the control of the country's existing as well as untapped oil-reserves, which are mainly in the Kurdish-controlled north and the Shiite-dominated south.
In principle, the draft law outlines the procedures and guidelines for oil transactions based on articles 11 and 112 of the constitution. The government had said that it is to be designed in a way that makes Iraqis the prime owners of the country's oil and gas wealth.
In conferences and media outlets, however, the mostly Shiite Basra oil workers and union members claim that the law allows the government to ”sell the country's wealth” for capitalist gains.
Iraq has the third largest oil reserves in the world. However, many of the existing oil fields have not been utilized since the 1970s. The current oil reserves are estimated to be equivalent to 115 billion barrels.
During their demonstrations against the draft law, the protesters in the oil industry and trade unions have been warning the oil ministry of the centralized government in Baghdad against ignoring their calls, while vowing to continue their rowdy protests.
In response, Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani banned unions from giving their say during discussions of the much-anticipated legislation.
By contrast, Ibrahim Bahr al-Oloum, former Iraqi oil minister told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the oil workers should be allowed to have their say: ”These unions should have a position (regarding the law) and their perspective should be considered. Unions protect oil workers.”
”Discussions should be open,” he said. He added the local media were playing a part in defaming the controversial bill, but he also believed that the government was vague in explaining the law.
”The people have a foggy picture” of what the legislation entitles, he said.
Meanwhile, Washington has been pushing for a speedy approval of the law, prompting many Iraqis, especially those in Iraq's oil-rich regions, to doubt the real motives of the Bush administration.
Many workers believe that the deal described as a ”profit-sharing” agreement by Premier Nuri al-Maliki and his cabinet is in reality intended to exploit Iraq's lucrative energy resources for the sake of US oil drillers and corporations.
According to former Oil Minister Bahr al-Oloum, one of the disputed elements of the law is the section describing the role of the national oil company and its role in the country's energy wealth.
The law had suggested that Iraq's national oil company would be restructured and turned into an independent holding company. This company would then be in charge of implementing national oil policy, according to a publicized draft of the law.
But the law does not guarantee Iraq's supremacy over its reserves since it does not outline a quota reserved to protect this holding company against foreign competitors, Bahr al-Oloum said.
”The national oil company should not be dealt with as a competitor to foreign contractors. The priority in contracts should be given tothe national company. Its share should not go below 51 per cent,” the former minister added.
Foreign companies and US oil giants are already queuing to sign exploration and production deals and to book oil reserves in Iraq.
”All the oil companies have been salivating at the prospect ofIraq for years. There is a good chance of very large discoveries. Nowhere else in the world offers that,” David Horgan, oil expert and managing director of Petret Resources, which has an operation in Iraq, told the UK's Guardian newspaper recently.
Most oil fields are located in the south of Iraq near oil-rich cities like Basra, West al-Qurna, Majnoun, Nahran Omar, Rafideen, Helfaya, Sabba, Lahees and Bazrkan.
Other areas like Kirkuk in the north, eastern Baghdad, al-Ahdab, Nasiriyah, and Artawy are also famous for their oil fields.
In Baghdad, discussions on the draft bill collapsed as Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites became divided on clauses regulating the power balance between the regions and the different Iraqi groups.
Sunnis feared the law would decentralize management of the oil fields. Shiites and Kurds contended for control over them, voicing considerations against annexes placing oil fields under the full control of the national company in Baghdad.
Given the amount of controversy ahead of the bill's parliamentary approval, some observers predict even more arguments to ensue over the execution of the law itself.
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Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/109399.html
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