[Nettime-nl] Shell (Balkenendende) in iraq

Hallo nettime,

Eindelijk nieuws over de achtergronden van Shell in Iraq en de NL warstance met de Bushits:

History can reveal much of how this may end. Iraq's oil was originally developed through a consortium called the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) - split roughly a quarter share to BP, Shell, and the forerunner to Total, with the remainder owned mainly by Standard Oil and Mobil. But, in 1972, it was nationalised by the revolutionary Iraqi regime. Negotiations over nationalisation were fierce, and Geoffrey Stockwell, who headed the IPC team, had some extraordinary clashes with both Saddam Hussein and Iraq's vice-president, Salih Mahdi Ammash. Ammash said Iraq would "go through any battle with the companies that was necessary", and resort to "all means necessary". The companies would also "lose Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti oil because if their Arab brethren did not stand by Iraq, they would use force to stop this oil flow".

After a painful battle, the IPC finally signed the nationalisation agreement on February 28 1973. Today, if "regime change" happens, we could see three of the world's largest public companies - BP, Shell and ExxonMobil - fighting for their old IPC possessions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,845167,00.html