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US Advised Iraqi Ministry On Oil Deals

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  • US Advised Iraqi Ministry On Oil Deals

    US ADVISED IRAQI MINISTRY ON OIL DEALS
    Andrew E. Kramer

    Monday, June 30, 2008 by The New York Times

    A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team
    played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi
    government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of
    the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.

    The disclosure, coming on the eve of the contracts' announcement, is
    the first confirmation of direct involvement by the Bush administration
    in deals to open Iraq's oil to commercial development and is likely
    to stoke criticism.

    In their role as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, American
    government lawyers and private-sector consultants provided template
    contracts and detailed suggestions on drafting the contracts, advisers
    and a senior State Department official said.

    It is unclear how much influence their work had on the ministry's
    decisions.

    The advisers - who, along with the diplomatic official, spoke on
    condition of anonymity - say that their involvement was only to help
    an understaffed Iraqi ministry with technical and legal details of
    the contracts and that they in no way helped choose which companies
    got the deals.

    Repeated calls to the Oil Ministry's press office for comment were
    not returned.

    At a time of spiraling oil prices, the no-bid contracts, in a country
    with some of the world's largest untapped fields and potential for
    vast profits, are a rare prize to the industry. The contracts are
    expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and
    Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies.

    The deals have been criticized by opponents of the Iraq war, who
    accuse the Bush administration of working behind the scenes to ensure
    Western access to Iraqi oil fields even as most other oil-exporting
    countries have been sharply limiting the roles of international oil
    companies in development.

    For its part, the administration has repeatedly denied steering the
    Iraqis toward decisions. "Iraq is a sovereign country, and it can
    make decisions based on how it feels that it wants to move forward
    in its development of its oil resources," said Dana Perino, the White
    House spokeswoman.

    Though enriched by high prices, the companies are starved for new oil
    fields. The United States government, too, has eagerly encouraged
    investment anywhere in the world that could provide new oil to
    alleviate the exceptionally tight global supply, which is a cause of
    high prices.

    Iraq is particularly attractive in that light, because in addition
    to its vast reserves, it has the potential to bring new sources of
    oil onto the market relatively cheaply.

    As sabotage on oil export pipelines has declined with improved
    security, this potential is closer to being realized. American
    military officials say the pipelines now have excess capacity,
    waiting for output to increase at the fields.

    But any perception of American meddling in Iraq's oil policies
    threatens to inflame opinion against the United States, particularly
    in Arab nations that are skeptical of American intentions in Iraq,
    which has the third-largest oil reserves in the world.

    "We pretend it is not a centerpiece of our motivation, yet we keep
    confirming that it is," Frederick D. Barton, senior adviser at the
    Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in
    a telephone interview. "And we undermine our own veracity by citing
    issues like sovereignty, when we have our hands right in the middle
    of it."

    United States officials are directly advising Iraq on a host of issues,
    from electricity to education. But they have avoided the limelight
    when questions turn to how Iraq should manage its oil endowment,
    insisting that a decision must rest with the Iraqi government.

    The State Department advisers on the Western contracts say they
    purposely avoid trying to shape Iraqi policy.

    "They have not negotiated with the international oil companies
    since the 1970s," said the senior State Department official, who was
    speaking about Iraqi oil officials and who is directly involved in
    shaping United States energy policy in Iraq.

    The advice on the drafting of the contracts was not binding, he said,
    and sometimes the ministry chose to ignore it. "The ministry did not
    have to take our advice," he said, adding that the Iraqis had also
    turned to the Norwegian government for counsel. "It has been their
    sole decision."

    The advisers say they were not involved in advancing the oil companies'
    interests, but rather treated the Oil Ministry as a client, the
    State Department official said. "I do not see this as a conflict of
    interest," he said. A potential area of criticism, however, is that
    only Western companies got the bigger oil contracts. In particular,
    Russian companies that have experience in Iraq and had sought
    development contracts are still waiting.

    Earlier in the occupation of Iraq, American advisers supported the
    Oil Ministry's effort to dismiss claims by the Russian company Lukoil
    to a large Saddam Hussein-era deal. The ministry maintains that the
    Hussein government canceled the contract three months before the
    invasion. Lukoil says the attempt to cancel the deal was illegal
    because Mr. Hussein had not appealed to international arbitration
    first, as required in the contract terms.

    The new oil contracts have also become a significant political issue
    in the United States.

    Three Democratic senators, led by Charles E. Schumer of New York,
    sent a letter to the State Department last week asking that the deals
    be delayed until after the Iraqi Parliament passes a hydrocarbons law
    outlining the distribution of oil revenues and regulatory matters. They
    contend the contracts could deepen political tensions in Iraq and
    endanger American soldiers.

    Criticism like that has prompted objections by the Bush administration
    and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who say the deals are
    purely commercial matters. Ms. Rice, speaking on Fox News this month,
    said: "The United States government has stayed out of the matter of
    awarding the Iraq oil contracts. It's a private sector matter."

    Advisers from the State, Commerce, Energy and Interior Departments are
    assigned to work with the Iraqi Oil Ministry, according to the senior
    diplomat. In addition, the United States Agency for International
    Development has a contract for Management Systems International, a
    Washington consulting firm, to advise the oil and other ministries. The
    agency's program is called Tatweer, the Arabic word for development.

    "The legal department of the Ministry of Oil passed us a draft of the
    contract," Samir Abid, a Canadian of Iraqi origin who is an employee
    of the Tatweer program, said in a telephone interview. "They passed
    it to us and asked for our comments because we were mentoring them."

    He added: "It was an exercise in deciding how best to do these
    contracts. I don't know if they used our comments or not."

    In a statement, the agency said its advisers had reviewed the oil
    company contracts, known as technical support agreements: "At the
    request of the Ministry of Oil, the Tatweer Energy Team has done
    a review of the format, structure and clarity of language of blank
    draft contracts."

    The statement said the team did not have access to confidential
    information from the oil companies.

    Consultants said the advice was necessary because the Oil Ministry,
    like other sectors of the Iraqi government, has experienced an
    exodus of qualified employees and lacks lawyers schooled in drawing
    up contracts.

    A supervisor with the Tatweer program, who was not authorized to
    speak publicly and declined to be quoted by name, said that ministry
    officials, many of them near retirement, needed help.

    The American government lawyers provided specific advice, the
    State Department official said, like: "These are the clauses you may
    want. You will need a clause on arbitration. You will need this clause
    to make this work."
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