France and its lastest move...
03-25-2003 | 10:06 PM
#11
w00t
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 7,749
Likes: 0
Originally posted by MrFatBooty
"French oil giant TotalFinaElf probably has the biggest stake. It spent six years in the 1990s doing preparatory work on two giant oil fields and has signed two tentative agreements with Saddam to develop them."
Most of the Iraqi oil supply is as of yet either non-developed or not even discovered. The Iraqi government doesn't have the finances to develop these oil fields so they signed an agreement with TotalFinaElf more than a few years ago which gave them the rights to develop the oil fields if/when UN sanctions on Iraq were lifted.
TotalFinaElf is not the French government, it is an oil company. The French government's main reason for opposing the war was not to protect TotalFinaElf from loosing its contract as a result of the removal of Saddam's government. The U.S. government has more of a stake in the oil market, as France is much less dependent on petroleum for its energy supply than we are. U.S.-based oil companies stand to gain from a Saddam ouster because they will have access to the undeveloped resources in Iraq that otherwise would have gone to TotalFinaElf.
France's government was no more motivated by oil than our own, so we can't exactly hold it against them without finding the U.S. just as much at fault.
Presumably we'll be setting up a democratic government that has the ability to regulate its own free-market economy. This is no more than Chirac posturing to say that companies based in his country will have access to a post-Saddam Iraq. So will everybody else.
"French oil giant TotalFinaElf probably has the biggest stake. It spent six years in the 1990s doing preparatory work on two giant oil fields and has signed two tentative agreements with Saddam to develop them."
Most of the Iraqi oil supply is as of yet either non-developed or not even discovered. The Iraqi government doesn't have the finances to develop these oil fields so they signed an agreement with TotalFinaElf more than a few years ago which gave them the rights to develop the oil fields if/when UN sanctions on Iraq were lifted.
TotalFinaElf is not the French government, it is an oil company. The French government's main reason for opposing the war was not to protect TotalFinaElf from loosing its contract as a result of the removal of Saddam's government. The U.S. government has more of a stake in the oil market, as France is much less dependent on petroleum for its energy supply than we are. U.S.-based oil companies stand to gain from a Saddam ouster because they will have access to the undeveloped resources in Iraq that otherwise would have gone to TotalFinaElf.
France's government was no more motivated by oil than our own, so we can't exactly hold it against them without finding the U.S. just as much at fault.
Presumably we'll be setting up a democratic government that has the ability to regulate its own free-market economy. This is no more than Chirac posturing to say that companies based in his country will have access to a post-Saddam Iraq. So will everybody else.
I never said we're angels :fawk:
Anyway, common man....they secured a HUGE contract for oil rights...regardless of the state of the oil fields, they will still walk away with a LARGE sum of $$$$. So isn't it quite convenient that France opposes the war? I swear, I love some French product and I have relatives who lives in France....but their government suxors.
__________________
Jimmy
Team B.O.B.™ - Ballaz on a Budget
R.I.P Huan Vo 11-19-2008
Jimmy
Team B.O.B.™ - Ballaz on a Budget
R.I.P Huan Vo 11-19-2008
03-25-2003 | 10:09 PM
#12
Wannabe yuppie
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 25,918
Likes: 0
From: Madison, WI
The state of the oil fields is why they secured the contract is all I'm saying.
"Isn't it convenient that the U.S. government could get a bunch of U.S.-based oil companies huge quantities of undeveloped oil wells by invading Iraq and getting rid of Saddam?"
TotalFinaElf isn't the French government; ExxonMobil, etc are not the U.S. government (even though Bush used to be some big oil executive).
"Isn't it convenient that the U.S. government could get a bunch of U.S.-based oil companies huge quantities of undeveloped oil wells by invading Iraq and getting rid of Saddam?"
TotalFinaElf isn't the French government; ExxonMobil, etc are not the U.S. government (even though Bush used to be some big oil executive).
