Why was Iraq so important to the UK?
And are Shell and BP paying rent to the state?
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thabet
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thabet
Why was Iraq important to the UK?
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johnpi
Who needs Afghanistan (for oil pipelines)?
The leaders of China and three Central Asian nations gathered Sunday in Turkmenistan ahead of a ceremony inaugurating natural gas deliveries from the energy-rich region to China.
….The pipeline culminates Chinese efforts to secure energy supplies for its fast-growing economy. The route also will enable gas producers in the region to diversify their exports away from Russia, which has exercised a virtual stranglehold over Central Asian energy supplies since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“This is a significant project of cooperation between two nations that will benefit all countries in the region,” Chinese leader Hu Jintao told reporters in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat.
“All countries in the region” except Afghanistan.
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thabet
China goes shopping in Africa again…
China National Offshore Oil Corp. is in talks with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. to make a bid for a stake in the Jubilee oilfield discovery that would rival Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $4 billion offer, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation. A Chinese fund is in dicussions with Guinea on possible financing for infrastructure, minerals and oil projects, the Financial Times reported.
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thabet
When future historians write about the seemingly inevitable conflict in Iraq between Arabs and Kurds, this sort of news report will form part of the evidence for build up in ethnic tensions:
Iraq’s Oil Ministry, which deems deals the largely autonomous Kurdish region signs with foreign oil firms illegal, had already threatened to blacklist Sinopec, China’s biggest oil refiner, for acquiring Addax Petroleum Corp.
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thabet
Four Gulf Arab states, alongside Russia, China, Japan and France, plan to ’stop using the US currency for oil trading’.
(Also, if the report is out, and the US knows about these plans too, the meetings between these nations are no longer ’secret’. So let’s stop calling them ’secret’.)
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thabet
This might be another sign that Qatar wants to offer an alternative to Saudi Arabia as a ‘big player’ in the region: Qatar signs a deal with Turkey.
Turkey has the same energy concerns as the EU: Russia’s virtual monopoly over gas into Europe. Of course, Turkey realises it is a geopolitical-energy hub, and alongside deals with Qatar, the EU, talk of one with Iraq, it has signed one with Russia too.
I’d expect any EU-Turkey-Iran deal on Nabucco, an anti-Russian pipeline project and an effort the US supports at the present time, to upset the anti-Iran hawks. India’s stalling on a pipeline from Iran through Pakistan suggests some pressure from the US. But India (and China, which is busy signing deals in Central Asia) would still have energy needs. Expect the conspiracy theorists to be given more grist for their mills, as the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline is resurrected (at least in the media — the engineering of such a pipeline is another story altogether).
Steve LeVine, however, says this sorts of pipeline politics is no longer valuable to the US; events, such as the Russia-Georgia War, China’s aggressive emergence in Central Asia and developments in technology, having overtaken their policy.
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thabet
China is spending again: this time a $16bn deal with Venezuela to drill in the Orinoco.
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thabet
Sierra Leone and Ghana may just become another two countries with a resource curse:
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Sierra Leone is one of the poorest states in the world and its neighbours to the south are not much better off. Oil production from Ghana’s Jubilee field is yet to ramp up, but the country is quite reasonably concerned that its oil wealth will turn it into yet another country ‘cursed’ by resources – it is not far away from Nigeria, after all, whose sizeable oil reserves have not exactly brought stability or prosperity for most of its people.
Speaking of West African nations ‘cursed’ with oil and mineral wealth:
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thabet
China continues its shopping for oil; it’s back in Latin America, signing a $10bn cash-for-oil deal with Brasil.
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thabet
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thabet
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thabet
Why are people surprised at this revelation?
This is hardly a out of character for New Labour:
The papers reveal how Blair put enormous pressure on Lord Goldsmith, his attorney-general, to force him to put an end to the embarrassing investigation into a huge Saudi arms deal.
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thabet
Oil is 150 years old, although it was known and exploited by the ancients of the far and near east, .
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thabet
Lockerbie letters published… no smoking gun, although Labour will have something to answer for. Labour in Scotland will look rather silly today given the ranting from Iain Gray.
There are obviously a lot of other details missing; but these relate to Labour’s dealings with Libya from 2003 onwards.
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thabet
Jonathan Mitchell, a Scottish QC, has a very good post on the release of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi, which explains the background of releasing prisoners convicted of terrorism and/or murder in the UK:
Mitchell also has a fact-check of FBI director Robert Mueller’s letter to the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, which was completely ignorant of the most basic of facts and included some wild, hysterical claims.
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thabet
Business trumps all:
In 1999, when a second Taliban delegation (first one was in 1997), came to the United States to discuss some pipe-line issues with various energy companies, they met with an expert in Afghan issues with whom the Taliban representatives…visited Mt. Rushmore.
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thabet
The Chinese are keen on Western hydrocarbon assets. Having wrapped up a massive deal with the Australians, they’re now putting the final touches on a deal with the Canadians.
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thabet
That other occupation:
The two-day discussions, held in the Austrian town of Duernstein on 10 and 11 August, took place in an “atmosphere of serious, frankness and mutual respect,” according to a statement issued by the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross.
Oh, and oil and gas are involved too.
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thabet
What’s the difference between cheering crowds greeting a man convicted of blowing up an aeroplane, and awarding medals to the crew of a warship that blew up an aeroplane?
What’s the difference between a member of the executive in a devolved government intervening in the case of a convicted terrorist on compassionate grounds (in accordance with the law of the land), and the president of a nation intervening (in accordance with the law of the land*) to allow a convicted war criminal to spend three years under house arrest?
*I presume it was perfectly legal.
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thabet
China’s ‘resource grab’ extends to Ecuador.
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thabet
Oil (and now gas). Always the oil (and now gas):
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“The vital oil and gas sectors are the mainstay of Libya’s economy. BG, Shell and BP are working hard and productively with Libya’s National Oil Corporation,” Digby Jones said. Business opportunities for British companies in key sectors including financial services, defence, aviation, ports and airports were also being explored, he said.
Simon Tisdall doesn’t mention that Italy’s Eni has been doing work in the country for years, ignoring the US Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.
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thabet
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thabet
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thabet
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thabet
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thabet
Using the Bible to find oil in the land of milk and honey:
John Brown, a Christian from Texas who formed Zion Oil and Gas in 2000, recently raised $21 million to continue his search for oil in Israel. According to an MSN news report, Brown is using passages from Genesis and Deuteronomy — verses that detail God’s ancient blessing on the tribes of Asher and Joseph — as his inspiration and guide for drilling in Israel. He expects black gold will be flowing within a few months. “There’s no maybe — it’s going to happen,” commented the 69-year-old Texan. In a France 24 report, Brown explained, “What started as a faith journey became more proof positive in that we have seismic and scientific evidence to back up what we’re doing . . . It’s the geology confirming the theology.”
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thabet
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thabet
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thabet
ExxonMobil must pay $1bn to victims of the Exxon Valdez disaster.
