[Texgreen] How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches

[Roger Baker]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece
Future of Iraq: The spoils of war

How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches

By Danny Fortson, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb

Published: 07 January 2007

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are  
about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil  
companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before  
the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of  
which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big  
oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to  
extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of  
foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was  
nationalised in 1972...