The door to Iraq's oil opens

This is a longer, 4 page piece about Iraqi oil: who controls it now, who will likely control it soon, where it is located, and how much there could be.

Iraqi Oil Minister Shahristani indeed makes a very important statesman today – at a time when worldwide oil demands are rising and consumer countries have appeared in Asia with gargantuan appetites for energy, when the oil majors’ booked reserves are in decline and the known global reserves happen to be primarily under nationalized systems

This article presses for ‘responsible’, fast Iraqi oil development without really truly taking a ‘pro-Iraqi welfare’ position.It is nonetheless highly informative for those following energy issues. Well-noted is the context in which Shahristani operates; he is in a dangerous position with respect to other Iraqi power-brokers & leaders….

The cynosure of Western eyes at the meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, commonly known as OPEC, in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, last December 5 was an unexpected personality – Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. But that wasn’t a chance occurrence. By the time OPEC gathered in Vienna six weeks later, it was beyond doubt that Shahristani was on the way to becoming a celebrity in the West.

But for the ease with which Shahristani traversed in his later years the dividing line that separates religiosity and idealism from worldliness and pragmatism, Shahristani would have become a cult figure for human-rights activists, given his extraordinary background as a top nuclear scientist who turned a stubborn dissident, and then a reckless jail breaker from Saddam Hussein’s Abu Ghraib prison where he was tortured and tucked away in solitary confinement for an impossibly long 10 years till 1991. Of course, the soft-spoken, English-speaking Iraqi Shi’ite dissident leader was a familiar face in Western capitals through the 1990s.
But today, he is no longer a political fugitive. He is no longer an Iraqi dissident seeking patronage. On the contrary, Shahristani finds himself in an enviable position as a creator…

Posted by zirkonyx
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