Well, as Bush "surges" the troops it looks like another "surge" is going on, this time in the energy sector. While many people are distracted by body counts, a draft oil and gas law for Iraq was put together.
And surprise, surprise, it reveals some very interesting items.
First, according to Article 1 all oil and gas in Iraq is controlled by the new Iraqi Federal Oil and Gas Council. And according to Chapter II, Article 5 the purpose of this Council will be to "To assist the Council of Ministers in creating Petroleum policies and related plans, arranged by the ministry in coordination with the producing provinces and regions, and to put important legislations for exploration and production..." There's nine other responsibilities of this council, all basically insuring that any exploration, development, and production of any oil/gas in Iraq is controlled by this group.
Now who will sit on this Council? Here's the fun part, it will be headed by the Prime Minister with other members consisting of:
"1- Federal Government’s Ministers from the ministries of oil, treasury, planning, and cooperative development.
2- The director of the Iraqi central bank
3- A regional government minister representing each region.
4- A representative from each producing province not included in a region
5- Executive managers from important related petroleum companies including the national Iraqi oil company and the oil marketing company
6- Three or less experts specialized in petroleum, finance, and economy to be hired for a period not exceeding 5 years based on a resolution from the council of ministers."(emphasis added)
Yes, that's right. Oil company executives will sit at the table to decide how to develop Iraq's oil/gas fields. And the Iraqi national oil company is just one of many oil executives with a seat at the table--they don't receive any preferential treatment. I mean why should they?--they're only the Iraqi national oil company and we're only talking about developing Iraqi oil and gas? If you want to see some fantastic corporate profits, imagine if Exxon sat on the board that controlled the third largest oil fields in the world...
I don't know why this is really surprising, after all this is a very Bushie way of handling business, letting those with most to gain/lose regulate themselves is practically the Bush M.O.
Luckily this law is just a draft so hopefully the Iraqis will see fit to throw out those unhelpful provisions.