Bombshell paper confirms the Rip-off of Iraq's Oil Wealth

[ChristinaB]

Crude Designs: the Rip-off of Iraq's Oil Wealth (November 22, 2005)

Greg Muttitt's bombshell paper confirms what many have long suspected -- the big US and UK companies have enormous interest in Iraq's giant untapped oilfields. He shows clearly how the companies have been angling to gain control of those fields and now, under the occupation, they are closing in on their goal. Production Sharing Agreements, the companies' favorite legal ploy, have already been negotiated with pliant Iraqi officials. Likely to be rushed-through after the December 2005 elections, these contracts may lock Iraq into decades-long arrangements that siphon as much as $200 billion from the Iraqi government into company coffers. (Platform, Global Policy Forum and others)

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security...udedesigns.htm

Contents

Executive Summary

Glossary

Chapters:


1 - The ultimate prize: Anglo-American interests in Gulf oil

2 - Re-thinking privatisation: Production sharing agreements

3 - Pumping profits: Big Oil and the push for PSAs

4 - From Washington to Baghdad: Planning Iraq's oil future

5 - Contractual rip-off: the cost of PSAs to Iraq

6 - A better deal: Options for investment in Iraqi oil

7 - Conclusion

Appendices:

1 - How a Production Sharing Agreement works

2 - Discounting in oilfield economics – key concepts

3 - Iraqi oilfield data

4 - Economic analysis - methodology and assumptions

References

About the publishers


List of tables:

5.1 - Impact of PSAs on Iraqi state revenues

5.2 - Impact of PSAs on discounted Iraqi state revenues

5.3 - Impact of PSAs on Iraqi revenues at different oil prices

5.4 - Impact of PSAs on oil company profitability

5.5 - Oil company profitability at different oil prices

6.1 - Foreign investment in the world’s major oil reserves

A3.1 - Data on 25 undeveloped Iraqi oilfields