Bush-linked Texas company signs oil deal with Iraqi Kurds

(edited for copyright purposes-proud patriot moderaror democratic underground)


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/sep2007/hunt-s15_prn.shtml

Bush-linked Texas company signs oil deal with Iraqi Kurds
By Joe Kay
15 September 2007


Earlier this month, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq announced that it had signed a production-sharing deal with Texas-based Hunt Oil. The move is an indication that Western oil companies, frustrated over the delay in the passage of a national oil law by the Iraqi government, are moving to make deals with regional bodies to get access to Iraq’s vast oil reserves.

As significant as the deal itself is the identity of the company involved. Ray Hunt, the CEO and president of privately held Hunt Oil, is a close confidant of President Bush and a prominent figure in the US political and intelligence establishment.

To what extent the policy of the Bush administration is motivating the deal—and to what extent it is motivated by purely profit interests—cannot be determined with precision. However, the announcement comes at a time of growing strains between the Iraqi national government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the Bush administration. Many commentators have noted that the moves by Kurdish authorities to establish autonomy in the control of the region’s oil resources could contribute to a fracturing of the Iraqi state along sectarian lines.

Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister in the Maliki cabinet, denounced the agreement, saying, “Any oil deal has no standing as far as the government of Iraq is concerned. All these contracts have to be approved by the Federal Authority before they are legal. This was not presented for approval. It has no standing.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/sep2007/hunt-s15_prn.shtml

Details trickle out about potential gem
Puskwa Play; Paramount Is Canadian Partner For Light, Sweet Find
Jon Harding, Financial Post
Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=3a46112e-1ba1-43dc-8d19-5d584fabeeb4&k=33598

With the dust settled following a furious 18-month battle to lock up land in what is likely Alberta's last untapped light, sweet oil gem, details of a closely guarded drilling success by Hunt Oil Co. are trickling out through Paramount Resources Ltd., Hunt's Canadian partner in the potentially massive oil find.

Hunt Oil, the largest private independent oil company in the United States, drilled a well in early 2005 in an area of the Peace River high arch known as Puskwa, due north of the city of Grande Prairie about 500 kilo-metres northwest of Edmonton.

Its flow tested at rates of 5,000 barrels a day, nearly double the size of a nearby well that Canadian intermediate Galleon Energy Inc. drilled in early 2006 --a find touted at the time for being one of Western Canada's largest conventional light oil discoveries in more than a decade.

Paramount, whose chairman and CEO is well-known Calgary oilman Clay Riddell, had farmed out the property to Hunt Oil while retaining a 22% interest in any successful well.

Privately held and secretive Hunt, meanwhile, kept the discovery quiet as the partners tried to lock up property in the region, jockeying with a handful of others including Duvernay Oil Corp., ProspEx Resources Ltd. and Galleon, which also hope to turn the Puskwa play into a cash cow as oil prices race toward US$80 a barrel.

Michael Rose, president and CEO of Duvernay, historically a gas producer, said his company is setting its sights on potentially adding Puskwa as a new core development area, with light oil as the prize next to the company's two current core regions in Alberta and British Columbia where it produces gas.

"We've had a discovery at Puskwa, we've found light oil but haven't ascertained how big the pool is yet," Mr. Rose said yesterday outside the Peters & Co. North American Oil & Gas Conference in Toronto.

Earlier in the day, the Alberta government cleared the way for Hunt and Paramount to start producing from their original well by granting a standard regulatory approval known as good production practice, which holds the companies to a commitment to seek the highest recovery possible using means that will not damage a reservoir.

Jim Riddell, Clay Riddell's son and Paramount's president and COO, said in an interview at the same investor conference that the Puskwa play could become a core development area for Paramount, which has also largely produced natural gas in the past.

"Does it have the potential to be a core area for Paramount? Yes," he said in Toronto.

"It wouldn't be on a highlight slide if it didn't have that kind of upside potential," he added. "How big could it be, I don't know. While we're a gas company traditionally, this is about finding whatever kind of hydrocarbons we can and getting the highest returns. It happens to be that we found oil in Puskwa and the price of oil today makes it very valuable."

Andrew Boland, head of research at Peters & Co., said the deep geological formation in the Puskwa play called the Beaver-hill Lake zone, in which companies are tapping, was largely overlooked in the past as an exploration target.

He said the "deceptive" sandy zone was known for good initial productivity followed by steep declines. "Which kind of cooled people," he added.

"As for today, lets face it, everyone in the basin has been so focused on gas that it's only now we're starting to scrutinize light oil opportunities. People are starting to dig up their light oil plays because they're looking at the prices and saying I can get better returns there."

Mr. Boland said a mad scramble has occurred for land near the discoveries by Hunt, Galleon and Duvernay.

"Most of the tussling has taken place and now I think this coming year we're going to see a lot more drilling," he said.

jharding@nationalpost.com

Ray Hunt of Hunt Oil is apparently in charge of making the plans for peace in Iraq inefficient. The US is trying to evenly distribute the oil income of the country (as it is a reason for Sunni uprising) in order to maintain peace in Iraq. Yet Mr. Hunt had the bright idea to contract a deal with the Kurds promising them that they would get more control of the oil (and thus the revenue) if they would give his company access to Iraq’s vast oil fields.
This idea would be useless had it not been for the fact that Ray Hunt was oil buddies with Bush. Back in 2000 Hunt was in charge of the Republican National Committee’s Victory 2000 Committee. Shortly after 9-11 Mr. Hunt scored a spot on Bush’s Foreign Advisory Board. Not to mention that Ray has donated a lot of money to the republican party. He had the connections. So naturally Ray does contract this oil and barring some miracle he will be making a lot of money (trading blood for oil).
Not only does this harm the already damaged Iraq by encouraging insurgent violence, but it is also counterproductive to what the US is trying to set in place (or so we thought). He isn’t helping the Iraqi’s; he isn’t helping the US; He is only helping himself. Ray Hunt has only proven he is a fascist.

Posted by Rocka89 at 10:14 PM
http://realp.blogspot.com/2007/09/hunts-horrible-oil-agreement.html

- Feature
Posted : Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:11:04 GMT
Ankara - On Iraq's northern border, Turkey and Iran have a common enemy in their sights. The armies of both countries are engaged in conflict with around 7,000 Kurdish militants who, tolerated by the government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, are entrenched in the mountainous frontier region.

The militants belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), outlawed in Turkey, and the Party for Freedom and Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) from Iran.
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Iranian artillery fire targeting suspected PJAK positions in the provinces of Sulaymanyah and Arbil is heard almost on a daily basis. Yet on the political front, the conflict is little heard of. Few seem to be troubled by this border war, save for the residents of Kurdish villages who have been forced to flee their homes.
In contrast to the ongoing car bombing campaign targeting markets, bridges and barracks in the Iraqi capital, the violence in the north seems to be little more than a sideshow to the main conflict for the politicians in the capital.
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Even in Washington, where any interference by Iran in Iraqi affairs normally results in accusations and warnings from the Bush administration, any opposition to the Iranian attacks on the border region remains firmly behind closed doors.
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Although the Turkish army has massed 10,000 troops along the Iraqi frontier and readied for a major offensive, it has so far engaged only in minor missions. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears committed to a policy of restraint.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/101088.html