Iraqi Tea

Wait a minute. There's oil in Iraq? When did that happen? You think the American and British oil companies know?

Yeah.

THE JOCKEYING HAS already begun, and the race seems likely to be won by American and British firms: ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Shell and BP. According to industry insiders, these giants are now the front runners in part because British and American troops are likely to end up in control of Baghdad, which can’t help but influence Iraq’s choice of business partners. More important, the world’s largest private oil companies are the only ones that can afford both to restore Iraqi oil production, which is now running at under half its 6 million-barrel-per-day capacity, and to develop its vast untapped fields. To protect the tens of billions they will need to pour into a postwar Iraq, the oil giants are likely to push a controversial form of contract that gives them an ownership stake in the oilfields and guaranteed relief from national tax and environmental laws for the life of the project.

Welcome to the Middle East Oil Company. Just like the East India Company, but with bigger weapons, and no qualms about using them.