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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (9602)	9/27/2003 8:45:16 AM
From: NickSE	Respond to of 793756

Iraq Is Seen as Crucial Factor in OPEC Move to Cut Output nytimes.com; IENNA, Sept. 25 - For someone whose attendance at the OPEC meeting this week seemed in question until he stepped out of a black Mercedes and past the Austrian police guarding the door, Iraq's new oil minister had a surprisingly potent impact. As a newcomer to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, appointed to the job less than a month ago by the Iraqi Governing Council, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum was probably not a deal maker at the meeting, but Iraq's returning oil production was crucial to the group's decision Wednesday to cut output. OPEC's surprise move to cut 900,000 barrels a day from its output - oil ministers had been hinting that no change in quotas was likely - was probably made possible by Mr. Uloum's assurance that Iraq would be able to sustain exports of that very amount. Iraq has been struggling to raise output to prewar levels and, possibly, beyond....cont'd.... Russia Sends Message to U.S. About Iraqi Oil Contracts nytimes.com he moment was a small but sweet victory for the Russian oil baron Vagit Y. Alekperov: the Getty gas station he bought in Manhattan three years ago was renamed yesterday after his own huge oil company, Lukoil, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was on hand to ring in the change, coffee cup in one hand and Krispy Kreme doughnut in the other. Mr. Alekperov wanted American consumers to understand that they need Russian oil and that companies like his are ready to provide it. For the last two years, oil has become an increasingly powerful bond between the United States, the world's largest consumer, and Russia, among the largest producers. But Mr. Alekperov's trip to the United States as part of Mr. Putin's entourage may partly be in the hope that the Bush administration could help Lukoil with a crucial oil interest outside Russia: the huge West Qurna field in Iraq. Lukoil is among several foreign companies that negotiated contracts and memorandums of understanding with the government of Saddam Hussein to develop oil fields once United Nations sanctions were lifted. The sanctions are gone, but so is the old government. Lukoil, along with the other companies, now worry that the agreements they spent years and millions of dollars to develop will be abrogated by the new Iraqi authorities....cont'd....