Kurdish oil and a value vacuum

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-04-110614.html



Kurdish oil and a value vacuum
By Chris Cook
Jun 11, '14

Few observers have picked up on the importance of the dispatch in late May from Ceyhan, Turkey to an unidentified European destination and buyer of a cargo of 1 million barrels of Kurdish crude oil, but one who did was J Millard Burr in a recent article "Kurdistan Oil Export: A Game Changer".

According to Burr: "What appears almost certain is that the movement of Kurdish oil through Turkey bypassed the TBI (Trade Bank of Iraq) and the DFI (JP Morgan Chase's Development Fund of Iraq account) arrangements that had existed for years. Thus, it is not surprising that, in underscoring its regional independence, the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] has managed to anger simultaneously the central government in Baghdad, Foggy Bottom, and the United Nations bureaucracy."

~snip~

"It is clear that the recent shipment of Kurdistan oil is but the first of many sales to come. However, many questions regarding its financing remain unanswered. Mete Goknel, a former director of BOTAS, the Turkish state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipeline company, has noted the long-standing mistrust that exists between Iraq's regions. In doing so, he raised the quintessential question which is yet to be resolved: 'Both Baghdad and Washington are concerned (in) which account the revenue from the oil sales will be deposited, (and) how it will be shared and be controlled'. "

Big Oil vs Big Money

The US State Department ("Foggy Bottom&quot has long been an extension of JP Morgan Chase and their acolyte banks such as Goldman Sachs which ruled the world for decades using debt and derivatives as weapons. This "Big Money" complex in the financial world has long constituted a power center in the US in competition with a "Big Oil" military/industrial complex in the real world exemplified by the mighty Exxon Mobil.