Oil Oops
It is probably inauspicious for Bush that on the eve of his debut in the Magical September extravaganza, the elusive Iraqi oil compromise is falling apart.
A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq’srich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talksamong Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed. The apparentbreakdown comes just as Congress and the White House are struggling tofind evidence that there is progress toward reconciliation and afunctioning government here.
There appears to be two causes for the collapse. First, Bush’s Sunni allies out in Anbar (and elsewhere) would rather embarrass Maliki than solidify a deal that will give them a share of the oil revenues.
But the prime minister’s office believes there is a simpler reason theSunnis abandoned or at least held off on the deal: signing it wouldhave given Mr. Maliki a political success that they did not want him tohave. “I think there is a political reason behind that delay in ordernot to see the Iraqi government achieve the real agreement,†said Sadiqal-Rikabi, a political adviser to Mr. Maliki. Mr. Rikabi was atWednesday’s meeting.
At least that’s what Maliki would like you to think–blame the Sunnis.
And then, of course, there are the independent oil deals the Kurds are signing, most notably one with Bush backer and intelligence buddy Ray Hunt.
Contributing to the dispute is the decision by the Kurds to beginsigning contracts with international oil companies before the federallaw is passed. The most recent instance, announced last week on aKurdish government Web site, was an oil exploration contract with theHunt Oil Company of Dallas.
All of which renews my question of the other day. WTF was Ray Hunt thinking when he signed that deal (besides about getting richer)? Kurdish attempts to present the Shiite and Sunni Arab Iraqis with facts with established Kurdish oil contracts before this oil deal was finalized are the real sticking point. Hunt’s contract, signed just days ago, makes that much worse. So why would a close Bush ally sign the deal–particularly so close to Bush’s big day?
Because Bush is a lame duck, the body of same they won’t even allow to cool before stepping over to claim their chunk?
What’s Hunt know that Dubya doesn’t?
TEN?!
TEN friggin’ posts today EW?
A handful of people can walk on water.
Apparently, you can run on it.
And I had two meetings and a number of work-related phone interviews. And walked the dog.
Didn’t make dinner though.
Because he’s really really greedy?
Too late for dinner? Thanks for all you do EW. I come here first, last and in between.
Hi Marcy how is Mr EW taking not having dinner?
Will the magic be gone?
The Kurds are acting largely autonomously – doing oil deals.
The Sunnis in Anbar are acting largely autonomously – getting oil revenue sharing credit now, according to Petraeus.
The Shiites in the south are acting largely autonomously – the British are leaving.
Bush calls this ’ground up reconciliation,’ but darned if it doesn’t look just like the ISG Plan. Ray Hunt’s surety might just be called Jim Baker.
All this sabre-rattling over Iran seems a distraction to mask Bush having the reigns taken out of his hands by the adults – the Military is beating the War Drum right next to his head as they implement his Daddy’s save-the-day plan to stave-off total disaster.
On Thursday evening – Will the magic be gone? Will Bush pull a Britney?
no dinner making? well, then.
just k. you are the light of my life, the lilt
in my step, the twinkle of my eye. i thank you
every day for what you do.
you stick to making my reading material and i’ll
cook for you. we had gnocchi with a roasted red
pepper sauce and cheese tortellini with peas and
ham in a basil cream sauce, all made after work with the
high schoolers.
but, hey, i didn’t write 10 entries.
i’m not worthy.
Yep – she swept the board today.
So Opec ups production and crude rises to $80 a barrel. WTF? Something’s fishy.
Oh, you are all going to love this:
WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) – In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus’s superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.
Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be â€an ass-kissing little chickenshit†and added, â€I hate people like thatâ€, the sources say.
The whole story at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39235
Yumm stagemom, basil cream sauce. I’ve been making batches of pesto while basil is in season with walnuts and roasted pine nuts, parmesan and a some romano for an extra zing, and always extra virgin olive oil. I love it on green beans and small red potatoes. It’s a little lighter meal than on pasta.
It’s also about in ground domestic oil in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. That oil was not a profitable pump until it hit $35.00+ a barrell at $80 a barrell the Southern Good ol Boy energy club is ripping windfall profits. Peak oil also puts Colorado shale oil back on the energy table for big money.
It time for Dems to get an alternative energy policy that promotes sustainable energy tax credits with teeth. Our economy cannot stand energy inflation, global warming and larger imbalance of trade. The 6 Billion dollar bases are there to insure that oil is flowing. Bombing Iran is percieved by hawks as strenghing that policy and reducing the Pakistan border and Afghaistan insurgents and getting a regional gas pipeline back on the table. The only long term solution is an energy policy that inluded all sources of solar wind and wave. Every motorized vehicle, ship and train should have solar panels to reduce carbon footprints. Al Gore could get the job done with the cooperation of Congress as head of the Energy Department or President.
… and from John Dean via Salon:
â€â€Just tell your readers that you have a source who knows a lot about the Republican party from long experience, that he knows all the key movers and shakers, and he has a bit of advice: People should not vote for any Republican, because they’re dangerous, dishonest and self-serving. â€
link: http://www.salon.com/books/fea…..ndex1.html
About dinner: when he left work, Mr. ew opted for rewarmed pizza. So I didn’t make the savory bread pudding I had planned on making, I had wonderfully ripe Howell melon for dinner, and then I did a few more posts.
But stagemom? I’m coming to dinner sometime–that sounds lovely.
â€
Almost sounds like a direct quote from the Bill Kristol political-war-games manual. Who’d of thunk it?
Woke up thinking about this.
Whose side is Hunt really on? Is he one of Poppy’s crew, is he an opportunist out only for himself, is he on board with CheneyCo?
If he is the latter most, has he been sent to be an agent provocateur, to incite a problem at the Turkish-Kurdish border, creating a situation in which it is even easier to lure Iranian agents into Iraq?
Why did Hunt go forward with signing?
Why did Bush go to Anbar and bypass Bagdad?
Why is Petraeus funding and arming Sunnis who have no alliegance to the central Govt?
Why was there a recent balloon floated in DC (Barbour LLC lobbyists) that Maliki needed to be replaced?
Different aspects of a single question.
Rayne
I’m not sure, but I suspect Hunt overrides both–that is, the big oil money in Texas is the client of Bush and Cheney, not their affiliate, per se. So Hunt could easily do something to skewer Bush, if â€they†decided it was time to (I’m thinking of similar moments when Tx oil money forced LBJ to do something totally against his interest). So it is possible that Hunt is just forcing BUsh to adopt a centrifugal strategy, as casual observer notes.
I am with Big brother about finding an alternative oil source. It would break the corruption and the oil cartel. It would create jobs. It would put american ingenuity back on the boards. Dems spout it, but too many of the need and depend on big oil money in it’s various forms.
The corruption needs to be broken and in my view almost all big money eventually leads to oil because every economy in the world now depends on it.
The main reason the deal probably ’fell apart’ is, although the various Iraqi Factions are not sure how to finally divvy up their huge natural resources, THEY DO know they don’t want to give them to ’Big Oil and Associates’.
So, in a really sad sort of way, Bush really is a ’uniter’.
He and Associates have managed to not only unite the majority of the worlds people (against US), He seems to also have managed to unite the Iraqis (against US) too…
So why would a close Bush ally sign the deal–particularly so close to Bush’s big day?
Because the George W. Bush Presidential Library isn’t going to build itself?
I won’t go long like before, but I’d say Frank Probst has it.
The Rice backed oil law is an Exxon/BP – supermajors giveaway. They get all the candy under that law. It was stalling, looked like at a minimum a couple of deals the Kurds had already made would be grandfathered by legislation, Hunt had the inside track on knowing that and no indy was going to have anyshots once the law was passed – so he went for it, and the money. If the law doesn’t get passed in its present form, there’s that much more room for indies, especially while the big tankers turn slowly trying to adapt. If it does get passed eventually, Hunt’s in line to be grandfathered. I’d say it was a Hunt for Hunt decision, not a Hunt for Bush decision.jmofwiw
Anyone have information on Dana Gas who also signed a contract with the Kurds? Google was no help.
So why would a close Bush ally sign the deal–particularly so close to Bush’s big day?
Why wouldn’t he? I guess I’m not seeing how this hurts Bush in any substantive way. Is he now suddenly not going to get his latest Iraq supplemental? Are Congressional Dems suddenly going to support a bill with real benchmarks instead of a toothless bill that exists only to provide political cover for Republicans? Is the administration going to stop ratcheting up the Iran rhetoric because of this? Since the answer to all of these is â€No,†why not let his good buddy make some extra obscene profits on the side?
mds – Well, that plus the whole Hunt family of loons has been known for being bat shit crazy for many decades. If you want an idea, google Bunker Hunt Silver Fingers. Ray Lee, and all of the Hunt family have better ties to the Arabs than Bush. In Texas, they are WAY bigger than the Bushs. In the scheme of the Texas peckaring order, Bush would work for Hunt, not the other way around.
That’s right BMAZ. This administration is a foil of corporate america, nothing more. Every once in a while the truth slips out bald faced.
And yes, is say we pass tough milage standards and pull out of the middle east all together. That’s the best thing for the country and the world, and the planet, but that’s not the best thing for big oil, so here we are.
Now which presidential candidate would truly move us that direction?
Big Bill Richardson. So far he’s the only one to get it right IMHO
All this is more churning the waters to distract the lawmakers, focus on The Oil, and not get what we need:
Tax and credit incentives and subsidies to put PVs on every roof in six years.
A son-of-CAFE law that forces all auto and truck manufactures to have 60% of their sales be hybrid in six years.
A program that subsidizes large-scale wind and centralized solar installations throughout the nation.
Massive tree-planting and tax incentives to land owners to create forests. Hemp farms to change the paper industry.
Investigation and funding of small-scale geothermal technology that was developed in the 70’s.
And so on. We could start changing our entire energy sourcing and usage today and have a completely different system in ten years. We don’t have to wait for some magic technology breakthrough, ethanol, â€clean†coal, oil sands, any of this. We don’t need new nuke plants. We can do this now, for less than the Iraq debacle has cost. We could create a huge new industry that would create quality US-based jobs. It would be easy compared to our current headlong rush into economic and social disaster.
I’ll get off my soapbox now. It’s just so frustrating.
We may have reached the point in the disintegration of Spaceship Earth where internationalizing the planet’s oil resource is our only option for survival.
Sally — re: Dana Gas
http://www.oilvoice.com/Dana_G…..t/9387.htm
Likely needed a few more search parameters to find this with Google. Try â€dana + natural gas + kurd + contractâ€
As I understand it the Big Oil interests and the Texas Oil interests have always been in it for themselves and supporting Bush was only a tactic to get er done.
So, if Hunt walks away from Bush with the Kurdish deal it only means he doesn’t need Bush any more. That also probably means Big Oil doesn’t need him any more either. That means Bush is only in it for Bush and that’s a small interest group with little support.
This is pretty big and is likely to force Bush, finally to begin a REAL drawdown from Iraq. Of course, he’ll do it in such a way as to appear not to be changing course at all. I’m okay with that so long as we get on with improving things instead of treading water.
Where does this eventually lead?
We’ll probably have a slow drawdown with troops over there for some time in various situations. Some will be assisting political conciliation by peacekeeping, some will be sitting back, perched for action, but just a looming presence and some will probably begin to position themselves to protect very real American interests there…oil interests and American citizens operating it.
A complete pullout isn’t imminent, but a big drop in the mortality rate should be appreciated by everyone.
Now, if George gets it…