Oil Change International

Our sites: The Price of Oil | Dirty Energy Money | Shift the Subsidies

Donate Now Take Action

Posts in Iraq

• Iraq: New “Colonial” Era of Oil Exploitation Begins

  Andy Rowell

  Nov03

  The British military may be gone, but the British oilmen are back. Today is the day that the oil men from BP take control of Iraq’s biggest oilfield: Rumaila. It is the first important oil deal since the 2003 invasion, and a long time since 1961 when Iraq passed Law 80 that wrestled back 99.5…
  Continue reading ‘Iraq: New “Colonial” Era of Oil Exploitation Begins’.

• Police Use Anti-Terror Laws Against Climate Activists

  Andy Rowell

  Oct16

  Tomorrow is the “Great Climate Swoop” where hundreds of climate activists will demonstrate against E.ON’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottingham. It is a protest aimed at raising the issue of climate change in the run up to the Copenhagen Summit in December. But the planned protest has caused  a strong backlash from the Police. Already there are…
  Continue reading ‘Police Use Anti-Terror Laws Against Climate Activists’.

• Rich should “rise to the challenge rather than race to the bottom”

  Andy Rowell

  Oct09

  For all the people who dared to dream that some kind of deal could be realised at Copenhagen comes the cold reality that time is basically running out.  Fast. And there is less than sixty days to go. The Bangkok talks have ended in failure. The gap between what is needed and what the current…
  Continue reading ‘Rich should “rise to the challenge rather than race to the bottom”’.

• Iraq: “We have the right to ask for our rights”

  Andy Rowell

  Sep07

  When the final chapter of the dying days of the hydrocarbon age is written, the petro-politics of one nation will probably have more bearing on the outcome than any other. Whether you are reading about Africa, Canada or the Middle East -  the country of concern will be China. (Also see Friday’s blog about the…
  Continue reading ‘Iraq: “We have the right to ask for our rights”’.

• Iraq Offers 2nd Round of Oil Bids

  Andy Rowell

  Aug25

  So the great Iraqi oil sell-off continues. The embattled Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani will today unveil the next round of oil contracts at a conference in Istanbul. Al-Shahristani is under pressure to pull in investment after the Iraqi government’s first round only secured one deal for the vast Rumaila field: BP and China National…
  Continue reading ‘Iraq Offers 2nd Round of Oil Bids’.

• Iraq Trade Union Threatens BP Deal

  Andy Rowell

  Jul17

  After its offer was accepted last month to develop Iraq’s vast Rumaila oil field, BP may have thought it had won the biggest prize in the country’s oil race. But it may not be over yet and BP now faces industrial action. The trade union representing workers of Iraq’s state-owned Southern Oil Company (SOC) yesterday…
  Continue reading ‘Iraq Trade Union Threatens BP Deal’.

• Kurds Stake Claim to their Oil Reserves

  Andy Rowell

  Jul10

  This was not meant to happen. In the post-invasion planning of Iraq it was meant to be the American and British oil companies that enjoyed the spoils of war and access to the country’s lucrative oil reserves. But the Kurds keep putting a proverbial spanner in the works. Iraq’s Kurdish leaders adopted a new constitution…
  Continue reading ‘Kurds Stake Claim to their Oil Reserves’.

• Iraq: BP Wins the Prize

  Andy Rowell

  Jun30

  A consortium led by oil giant BP and China’s CNPC has today won the contract for the vast Rumaila oil field – the largest oil field in Iraq and one of the biggest in the world. The acquisition will be seen as a huge boost to BP, which has been seeking to get control of…
  Continue reading ‘Iraq: BP Wins the Prize’.

• The “mother of all sell-outs”

  Andy Rowell

  Jun19

  UPDATE 6/24: The Wall St. Journal has an interesting article on this. Way back in November 2002, as the build up to the war in Iraq gathered pace, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared on the Arabic Service of Monte Carlo radio, in an address targeted at the Iraqi people. “The idea that this…
  Continue reading ‘The “mother of all sell-outs”’.

• The Beginning of the End of Oil?

  Andy Rowell

  Jun11

  Is this the beginning of the end of the oil age? Are we finally falling out of love with black gold? The end may not be coming not because we are running out of it, but because demand is alowly decreasing through increased energy efficiency. It will not be sudden, but a death of a…
  Continue reading ‘The Beginning of the End of Oil?’.