Iraq's Oil Law: Backsliding on Benchmarks

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003461.php

Iraq's Oil Law: Backsliding on Benchmarks
By Spencer Ackerman - June 18, 2007, 4:31 PM

For months, sectarian acrimony in the Iraqi parliament has stalled passage of an oil law -- a crucial "benchmark" for national unity. That's been especially distressing to U.S. officials, who frequently invoke the oil law's potential for fostering national unity. One of its chief proponents, former U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, wrote in a valedictory March op-ed that the measure represents "the first time since 2003 that all major Iraqi communities have come together on a defining piece of legislation."

But UPI energy correspondent Ben Lando, perhaps the most diligent and thorough reporter focusing on the oil law, points out that the actual text of the legislation doesn't represent anything of the sort. For starters, the law punts on the hard questions:



Got that? The law doesn't even establish who owns the revenue generated by oil sales -- the mechanism that's supposed to mollify Sunnis in the oil-starved center-west of the country -- and it's still bottled up in the Iraqi parliament. Talk about a benchmark that marks few benches.

to foreign (US and UK) companies.

That's why they split the Hydrocarbon Law up. Once the Iraqi Parliament approves the future reserves law, the Bush Administration won't care if they never agree how to split up the proceeds. The GOP and the oil companies might prefer that, actually. That way, they don't have to deal further with anyone in Iraq, or with several competing regional bodies, rather than one central authority.

The hypocrisy and cynicism of the Bushites and oil companies is just disgusting.