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Pastimes : Nostradamus: Predictions -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dwight Taylor who wrote (76)	2/27/1998 10:45:00 AM
From: Richnorth	Respond to of 1615

2/26/98 -- 3:20 PM World's Oil Giants have their Eyes on Iraq's Lucrative Fields PARIS (AP) - With their fate in the hands of diplomats, international oil companies are hoping for a political green light to go after the rivers of oil buried under Iraqi sands. Billions of barrels have remained underground since the United Nations levied sanctions against Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, preventing foreign oil companies from pumping the black gold. The United Nations will not let foreign oil companies invest in Iraq, or deliver any equipment. But companies have been allowed to plan projects they could pursue if sanctions are lifted. France, Russia, China, Italy and Spain - to name a few - have all been busy concluding such deals. They are eager for Iraq to comply fully with U.N. weapons inspections, a condition for sanctions to be lifted. And they all refused to back the latest U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf to force Saddam Hussein to let inspectors roam freely. These countries hope the deal worked out this week by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan marks a step toward completing the inspections and ending the sanctions. ''I think the chances of seeing the sanctions partially lifting have never been as great as today,'' said Pierre Terzian, editor of Petrostrategies, a Paris-based petroleum weekly. Some world leaders are openly lobbying for sanctions to end. French President Jacques Chirac, whose country is among those that stand to benefit most from doing business with Baghdad, came out strongly in favor of lifting sanctions in an interview with the French daily Le Monde published Thursday. Chirac said he planned to write a letter to Saddam and tell the Iraqi leader that "everything is possible, especially the lifting of sanctions." France's oil giants Elf Aquitaine and Total are poised to be among the first petroleum companies to move into Iraq. Elf Aquitaine has been talking for six years with Iraq about developing the vast Majnoon fields in eastern Iraq which could yield 600,000 barrels a day. All the technical and economic issues have been settled. "It is purely a political matter and therefore it doesn't depend at all on Elf Aquitaine. So as soon as it is possible, we obviously will try to conclude the contract with the Iraqis," Phillipe Jaffre, the chairman of Elf Aquitaine, said Thursday. Russia is another country poised to profit from the lifting of sanctions. Several of Russia's leading oil companies, including the giant Lukoil, signed contracts last year worth an estimated $3.8 billion to help develop the huge West Qurna oil field in southern Iraq. Russia and Iraq have ties that date back decades. The Soviet Union used to be the leading arms supplier to Iraq, which purchased an estimated $30 billion worth of military hardware, most of it during the 1980-8 war with Iran. Iraq still owes more than $7 billion on those purchases, but lacks the money to pay Russia back. However, Iraq has said it will favor Russia when signing oil contracts and other business deals. Also, Russia has been the leading buyer of Iraqi oil under the current oil-for-food deal between Iraq and the United Nations. Elsewhere in Europe, Spain's Repsol and Italy's state-owned oil company Agip have been talking actively with the Iraqis to develop oil fields at Nasiryah in southern Iraq. However, Repsol spokeswoman Carolina Alvero said it was too early to tell when sanctions would end. ''For the moment, we are waiting to see how the situation evolves,'' Alvero said. China signed an agreement in June 1997 to develop the Ahdab oil field in Iraq that is believed to be worth about $1.2 billion. Arab countries too would stand to benefit from lifting sanctions, with Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates at the top of the list. Turkey has estimated its loss of revenues from trade and oil transport through the pipeline with Iraq at some $30 billion over the last 7 1/2 years. Not all countries, however, are waiting to jump into Iraq. The German Foreign Ministry has said it was urging German firms not to sign preliminary deals with Iraq that would take effect if sanctions are lifted. Britain, the United States' closest western ally in dealing with Iraq, also has no deals underway. __________________________________________________________