The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
Dear list members, I have just returned from a conference on Iraq's oil sector. One of the things that surprised me about the conference were the consistent messages that surfaced from a number of the speakers. Chief among these was that big firms would not try to move into Iraq until there was a democratic (or legitimate) government. There are important differences between Democratic and 'legitimate', but it seemed widely appreciated that the legal risks associated with signing contracts with Occupying Powers, not legitimate governments, were prohibitive. One representative of a large firm told me that they've been in most of the countries that they work in for 50 years: they're not going to dash into something that they see as a long term investment. Oil companies are very capital intensive and may, therefore, be more inclined to move more slowly than are firms that would place less capital at risk. Best, Colin Rowat work | Room 406, Department of Economics | The University of Birmingham | Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK | web.bham.ac.uk/c.rowat | ( 44/0) 121 414 3754 | (+44/0) 121 414 7377 (fax) | c.rowat@bham.ac.uk personal | (+44/0) 7768 056 984 (mobile) | (+44/0) 7092 378 517 (fax) | (707) 221 3672 (US fax) | c.rowat@espero.org.uk _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk