A popular conspiracy theory about the US invasion of Iraq was that America wanted to seize control of its oilfields to divide them up with western allies and friends in the boardrooms of "Big Oil". The truth is, that was never on the cards. A return to the "good old days" for western colonial powers in oil-rich parts of the Middle East would never have been tolerated by any legitimate post-war Iraqi government or by the international community.
It was clear to all that before 1972, when Saddam Hussein nationalised Iraq's oil industry, international companies had paid a pittance to the resource's owners - the Iraqi people - for the oil they took out of the country. Iraqis, even Saddam, were justified in resenting that and putting a stop to it. That is not to say that oil was not a strategic consideration in the decision of George W Bush, the former US president, to oust Saddam. Given that Iraq sits on the world's third-largest proved oil reserves and has a huge potential for further discoveries, it could never have been far from his mind. That was clear from the vigorous measures US forces took to secure Iraq's oilfields and to protect its oil ministry when they marched on Baghdad.
But Iraqis would hardly have thanked the invaders for failing to protect their most valuable asset and only apparent source of future wealth. So the most that can be said is that the US may have waged war with the covert intention of ensuring the continued flow of oil from a major exporter to the international market. If the US troop presence was intended to increase the westward flow of Iraqi crude, it failed. US oil imports from Iraq last year were 21 per cent below their peak in 2001.
But that is not why the US is withdrawing its forces from the country. The troops are leaving because they are causing more security problems than they are solving, because their continued presence in Iraq is a heavy burden to US taxpayers and a political liability, and because an elected Iraqi government has asked them to go. The Bush administration was less than forthright about its motives for invading the country, leaving ordinary Americans to jump to ill-informed conclusions. There were also misconceptions within Iraq. One was that international oil firms, after complaining for years about being shut out of the world's best oil projects, would fall over each other to gain access to the country's biggest oilfields on any terms.
Last week's public auction of Iraqi oil licences on live TV put paid to that notion. The bidders walked away from contracts to produce oil from Iraq's biggest fields, figuring that the deals held risks that outweighed any reasonable chance of reward. The auction's progress seemed to take bidders and organisers by surprise. For each field, the bidding consortiums dropped sealed offers for the development contract into a large plexiglass box. Then the oil ministry announced what it was prepared to pay, eliciting gasps from the executives assembled in the conference room of a Baghdad hotel. The fees on offer turned out to be far below what they expected.
In the end, only one contract of the eight on offer was awarded, after an alliance of BP and China National Petroleum Corporation agreed to halve their price to raise output from Iraq's biggest oilfield. For the smaller fields, the gaps between the bidders' requested payments and the government offers were too wide to be bridged. Were the miserly ministry offers serious when the foreign firms had been asked for big upfront payments on contracts that could easily be rescinded? And would those foreign firms risk financial penalties if they missed production targets for any number of unforeseeable reasons?
Or was the auction a political show staged to convince the Iraqi people of the lengths to which the government would go to protect the nation's oil wealth from rapacious foreign interests, before they voted in the Jan 31 parliamentary election? The offers must have been serious as Dr Hussein al Shahristani, the oil minister, had staked his political future on the auction's outcome. Dr al Shahristani has faded into the background since announcing the results.
Meanwhile, Ali al Dabbagh, the government spokesman, said the bidding round "didn't achieve the full objectives of the ministry of oil". For their part, foreign oil executives may have had unrealistic expectations of what Dr al Shahristani could afford to offer in the intensely nationalistic political climate of post-war Iraq. But Iraq also has to stop thinking that imposing sovereignty over its resources means denying companies a reasonable return.
To achieve the nation's goals, both sides must profit. @Email:tcarlisle@thenational.ae
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
MATCH INFO
Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium (Malacca, Malayisa)
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia scheduled for October 10
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes. Portland is a 260 km drive from Seattle and Emirates offers codeshare flights to Portland with its partner Alaska Airlines.
The car
Hertz (www.hertz.ae) offers compact car rental from about $300 per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.
Parks and accommodation
For information on Crater Lake National Park, visit www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm . Because of the altitude, large parts of the park are closed in winter due to snow. While the park’s summer season is May 22-October 31, typically, the full loop of the Rim Drive is only possible from late July until the end of October. Entry costs $25 per car for a day. For accommodation, see www.travelcraterlake.com. For information on Umpqua Hot Springs, see www.fs.usda.gov and https://soakoregon.com/umpqua-hot-springs/. For Bend, see https://www.visitbend.com/.
The biog
Name: Atheja Ali Busaibah
Date of birth: 15 November, 1951
Favourite books: Ihsan Abdel Quddous books, such as “The Sun will Never Set”
Hobbies: Reading and writing poetry
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Race card
5pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m; 5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
6pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m; 6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (PA) 1,400m
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ovasave%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20November%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Majd%20Abu%20Zant%20and%20Torkia%20Mahloul%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Healthtech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Three%20employees%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Pre-seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24400%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Scoreline
Syria 1-1 Australia
Syria Al Somah 85'
Australia Kruse 40'
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Fringe@Four Line-up
October 1 - Phil Nichol (stand-up comedy)
October 29 - Mandy Knight (stand-up comedy)
November 5 - Sinatra Raw (Fringe theatre)
November 8 - Imah Dumagay & Sundeep Fernandes (stand-up comedy)
November 13 - Gordon Southern (stand-up comedy)
November 22 - In Loyal Company (Fringe theatre)
November 29 - Peter Searles (comedy / theatre)
December 5 - Sinatra’s Christmas Under The Stars (music / dinner show)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Scorebox
Dubai Sports City Eagles 7 Bahrain 88
Eagles
Try: Penalty
Bahrain
Tries: Gibson 2, Morete 2, Bishop 2, Bell 2, Behan, Fameitau, Sanson, Roberts, Bennett, Radley
Cons: Radley 4, Whittingham 5
Other key dates
-
Finals draw: December 2
-
Finals (including semi-finals and third-placed game): June 5–9, 2019
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Euro 2020 play-off draw: November 22, 2019
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Euro 2020 play-offs: March 26–31, 2020
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5