Iraqi Oil

Hands Off Iraqi Oil held a demonstration outside the Middle East Energy 2008 conference at Chatham House in London on Tuesday 5 February.

Iraqi oil minister Dr Hussain Al-Shahristani and UK minister Malcolm Wicks spoke at the conference, which was financed by the British companies BP and Shell, as well as ExxonMobil and StatoilHydro.

Demonstrators were warning that Iraq would lose billions of pounds in oil income under a proposed new law which the British and US governments are pressing the Baghdad administration

A Hydrocarbon Law which advocates a radical restructuring of Iraq’s oil industry was approved by the Iraqi cabinet in February. It was crafted in secret over an eight month period from July 2006, in consultation with 9 foreign oil companies, the US and UK governments, and the IMF. Iraqi Parliamentarians saw it for the first time this February. Iraqi civil society has had no involvement in the process – despite lobbying for inclusion.