Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Shell Oil to Develop Iraq’s Oil in Exchange for Payment of $1.39 per Barrel

--- by Ray Metcalfe


In a nutshell, if oil reaches $100 per barrel, Iraqis will keep the entire $100. –––– From the $100, Iraq will:

(1) pay Shell Oil $1.39 for each barrel they produce,

(2) reimburse Shell for actual wages paid and materials purchased, and

(3) Iraq will tax Shell’s profits and Iraq’s parliament reserves the right to raise or lower it’s tax on oil company profits at any time.


Alaska pays five to ten times as much for the same service to oil companies who threaten to abandon Alaska if we don’t let them keep more of the profits, reduce their taxes and contract away our right to raise or lower taxes on oil. No government in the world has ever bargained away its government’s right to raise or lower its rate of taxation.


Alaska’s oil fields have never been nationalized as Iraq’s were. BP is buying back in even though thirty years ago Iraq took its oilfields away and confiscated their investments. Alaska’s oil is not in a war zone and isn’t likely to be seized or become the subject of a civil war over control.


Until Iraq’s open bidding process forced oil company bidding secrets out into the open, oil companies around the world were very successful at keeping the terms of their contracts for developing oil from inquiring eyes.


While it was obvious for decades that other oil producing states were getting far more for their oil than we Alaskans, it was not until now that we Alaskans could point to proof beyond the shadow of a doubt that Alaska’s terms are quite generous. We now have proof that the same oil companies who tell us they are going to leave Alaska unless we pay them more are investing in much riskier oil in exchange for far less profit.


When Iraq called the bluff of ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and BP they were all telling Iraqis “they would leave Iraqi’s to their own devices unless Iraq paid them $4 to $5 per barrel plus expenses to develop their oil.


ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and BP have since all agreed to step into a war zone to develop Iraq’s oil fields charging a service fee of under $2 per barrel.


We Alaskans still have several legislators depending on oil companies for campaign funds. Those same legislators are now fully aware that the oil industry has been bribing numerous legislators for many years, in exchange for sweeter terms on oil production. –– Yet several oil dependent legislators continue to treat oil as a trusted source of valuable information as they champion their quest for higher profits.


And most egregious of all, Alaska’s media has never armed Alaska’s voters with the knowledge they need to distinguish fact from fiction when oil companies plead poverty.


[Ray Metcalfe may be reached at (907)-344-4514]

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I had a conversation with a certain outsider republican senatorial candidate that was running against Stevens in the primary in the last election, ...he explained the complicity of our legislators in keeping Alaskans at third world level with our oil share. As 'V V' said, Norway had 400 billion in their permanent fund...their oil went on line about the same time as ours, but they were given a fair share, unlike even the ACES fails to do, keeping us in that third world, in the dark, catagory. The media should jump all over this and expose what is going on...the majors completely ripped off the state during the first decades of the pipeline with the ELF and all, and now depend on us not looking at any of the shenanigans it continues to hoodwink us with...so to speak. Hello, anybody out there to speak truth to power?

Anonymous said...

Evens the Dem were not uniformed in getting a tax on gross. Les tried but not one spreadsheet to educate the public was ever released by the party or the AK media. Everyone got a hard on for ACES but they left 10% to 15% on the table. Suckers


Too many vested interest want Alaska in the Dark Ages

Philip Munger said...

"Too many vested interest want Alaska in the Dark Ages...."

if only it weren't true

Yusef Asabiyah said...

I don't think the problem is that there were never not enough honest and concerned people armed with good information.

In the early years there were many Republicans as well as Democrats who knew the score and tried to fight for a better deal for Alaskans and as far as I can tell it was just plain impossible.

Dealing with these oil companies wasn't like dealing with nuns. These people are bad and they play hardball. They don't lose without one hell of a fight. I noticed yesterday as I perused through the web on the Bill Allen "polar pen" investigations--not a peep anywhere about what role BIG OIL played...

Philip Munger said...

"--not a peep anywhere about what role BIG OIL played..."

if anyone is skilled at using cut-outs, it is big oil companies.

Yusef Asabiyah said...

In other words, if anyone is skilled at the techniques of the criminal, it is the oil companies.

They corrupt officials, subvert the laws, and operate outside the mores of sociality, sociopathically, for selfish interests alone.

Anonymous said...

Recommended reading..'The confessions of an Economic Hitman' by John Perkins..tells what we and the rest of the world are up against in the influence of deception.