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| Axis of Evil |
| Russian stake in Iraqi oil project in doubt |
| 2002-12-12 |
| Lukoil, Russia's largest oil group by reserves, was informed this week, along with two minority partners in the project, that their contracts in the second phase of the West Qurna field had been terminated, a Lukoil company executive told Russian press agencies on Thursday. Bad move, Sammy. That lets the Russers off the hook, and they can come back when you're decomposing and do business with the new gummint. Now they don't have any reason to bitch when somebody tries to kill you... Energy Intelligence Group's "Eye on Iraq" on Wednesday first cited extracts of a letter from the Iraqi oil ministry sent on December 9 to Vagit Alekperov, head of Lukoil, saying that its contract was "null and void" because of a failure to fulfil the obligations to develop the field, which has recoverable reserves of 7.3bn barrels. The magazine interpreted the move as a sign of anger over statements by Mr Alekperov that Russia was pushing to protect its interests in the field in the event that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was removed from power, and indications that he had held secret talks with Spencer Abraham, the US energy secretary. That's very interesting. I didn't know that. I wonder if this ties in with the recent kidnappings of relatives of Russian oil company executives? On September 12 the vice-president of LUKoil Sergei Kukura was kidnapped. A couple of weeks later he re-appeared, but the circumstances of his release remain a mystery. According to some sources, he was freed for a ransom that LUKoil paid; others said the executive’s release was the result of a special operation.Baghdad's move has puzzled some observers, as it will serve to alienate Russia, which has been one of Iraq's strongest supporters in the past in efforts to lift economic sanctions and to resist unilateral and military action by the US. It could result in reduced Russian pressure to protect the existing Iraqi administration, and even further enhance Lukoil's chances of winning a fresh contract should a new regime unfriendly to Mr Hussein take power. Clueless in Baghdad. It's OK to say bad things about countries supporting the U.S., but another thing entirely when you take money out of their pockets. You just picked the Russian Bears pocket. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 Privately, the Ruskies were always on side. Putin did the calc and it came us USA. What other result could it have been - status quo? Harldly. But they (and the froggies and leiderhosen crowd also) are all on board except when maintaining their public image. When the rubber hits the road everyone will want to be seen on the bandwagon to Baghdad. |
| Posted by: Jack 2002-12-13 05:44:28 |
| #4 Russia's reluctance to support the US actually made sense - from Moscow's viewpoint anyway - because they had such a critically big investment in Iraq. Now Saddam has gone and yanked the rug out from under them. Smooth move, guys; REAL smooth. If Russia still had any Guards Tank Armies left, I bet Vladimir Putin would be offering a couple of them to GWB for the coalition right about now. More realistically, one may look for Russia to review that 12,000-page Iraqi declaration with a gimlet eye - and a rather more skeptical one than they might have a few days earlier. |
| Posted by: Joe 2002-12-12 17:59:58 |
| #3 Russia's entire refusal to support Bush was based on economics. Have the Iraqis gone mad? This may be the stupidist thing they have done. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-12 15:04:35 |
| #2 More bad news: The body of Sadi Sharifov, the father of Vagit Sharifov, a Lukoil vice-president, was found by a roadside 60km south-west of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, David Stern reports. He had been kidnapped from his home 10 days ago and apparently died of a heart attack while in captivity. They seem to think he was kidnapped for ransom, a growth industry in Georgia. |
| Posted by: Steve 2002-12-12 14:45:15 |
| #1 "Do not poke the bear." |
| Posted by: Ptah 2002-12-12 14:24:45 |