Some days it just seems like everything you touch just goes to shit, doesn't it? John McCain is probably feeling that way right now, with the precocious pick of one Sarah Palin for his VP.
And in news that has come out in the last few hours, it probably seems like that today to President Bush and shadow-President-at-an-undisclosed-location Cheney. Why?
Because China has first dibs on the Iraq oil prize!
After we saved them from Saddam, brought them freedom and democracy, and built the biggest, finest US Embassy ever, those ungrateful A-rabs went and signed their first long term oil services contract with CHINA!
I can just see the steam coming out of Dick's ears! Let it blow you over the jump...
Yep. This is yet another example of the fine managerial and entreprenuerial instincts of Republicans.
Let me quote some of today's breaking stories:
Forbes:
China Nabs Gold In Iraq Oil Race
Tina Wang, 08.28.08, 6:40 PM ET
In the race among global oil majors to re-enter Iraq, China scored the first win.
While Western oil firms have been trying to access the world's third-largest oil reserves since the 2003 U.S. invasion, state-run China National Petroleum Corp. secured the post-Saddam government's first major oil contract. The $3 billion oil services deal, signed Wednesday, revised the terms of a 1997 agreement to pump oil from the Adhab oil field. The contract replaces a production-sharing arrangement with set-fee technical services.
The field will start pumping in 2011, at a target output of 110,000 barrels per day, and operate for 20 years, Iraq's oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani said.
The deal was unusual as the current Iraqi government has repudiated "virtually" all other Saddam-era oil arrangements, said Mark Gilman, an analyst for the Benchmark Co...
AFP:
China to charge $6 a barrel to develop Iraq field
5 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq on Tuesday cleared a plan to develop an oil field by China Petroleum National Corp. at a service fee of six dollars a barrel, giving Beijing a foothold into the world's third largest oil reserves.
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said the cabinet had approved the three-billion-dollar deal that will see China's state-owned company developing the Al-Ahdab oil field in the central Shiite province of Wasit.
"The Chinese company will charge six dollars per barrel of production as service fees which would decrease gradually to three dollars," Shahristani told reporters inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
He said the plan is to be produce 25,000 barrels of oil per day in the first three years.
An Iraqi oil ministry official last month told AFP that the oil field would become fully operational in three years' time and is likely to produce oil for 20 years after that.
Al Jazeera:
Iraq has toughened the terms, changing the contract to a set-fee service deal from the oil production sharing agreement signed under Saddam.
Iraq needs billions of dollars of investment in its energy sector after years of war and sanctions.
But with high oil prices and strong competition for access to some of the world's cheapest oil to produce, Iraq has been negotiating from a position of strength.
Under the revised contract, Adhab will produce 110,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from the previous target of 90,000 bpd, Shahristani said.
First output would come in three years, and the field should pump for 20 years, he said.
CNPC would own 75 per cent of a joint venture to be set up for the contract, while Iraq's Northern Oil Company would own 25 per cent, he added. The value of the contract would be reviewed every quarter, he said.
Bloomberg:
Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani would be visiting Beijing to conclude a contract to develop the Ahdab field with a unit of China National Petroleum Corp., an official at the ministry said last week.
The 1997 production-sharing agreement between China and Iraq has been converted into a $1.2-billion service contract, the Al-Noor newspaper cited al-Shahristani as saying Aug. 18, Reuters reported on Aug. 19. The Chinese company, which was previously entitled to a share of profit from the Ahdab field, will now work for a fee, according to the report.
The Iraqi oil minister was cited by Reuters on Aug. 27 as saying the contract with China is worth $3 billion.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. are among companies that have been negotiating with the oil ministry for the last two years to offer technical help to boost crude production. The companies hope such service contracts will increase their chances of winning exploration rights in the country, holder of the world's third-largest oil reserves.
So we went to war because of non-existent Arms of Mass Destruction, or maybe to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq like we did to Kuwait, or maybe to ensure we had an inside line to one of the biggest, easiest to harvest pools of oil left in the world. I'm thinking the latter is most likely.
And now, after a couple trillion dollars of debt owed to China that will be passed to our grandchildren, hundreds of thousands of both American and Iraqi lives, untold devastation, and a greatly reduced level of respect and admiration from the world as a whole, China deftly reaches around us and gets the goods.
Perfect, W. This whole fiasco has been a perfect example of an endless fuckup from day one. Pretty much like you clearing brush on your pig farm.
And we sure as hell don't need no McSame to try to get us out of this mess.