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Page added on December 21, 2015
Iraq Seeks China Oil Tie-Up Ahead of Iran Flood
Iraq is in talks to form an oil-marketing joint venture with China’s largest refiner, Sinopec, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Middle East producer prepares for rising Iranian rivalry amid an oil-price slump.
The move comes as sanctions on Tehran may be lifted as early as next month, unleashing half a million barrels a day of additional Iranian oil. Oversupply has already led to a free fall in global oil prices, which dropped to their lowest level since 2004 on Monday.
Anticipating the return of Iranian oil, the people said Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil—the government organization tasked with selling Baghdad’s oil—is in advanced discussions to set up a joint venture with Unipec, the trading branch of Chinese state refiner China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. , or Sinopec.
The partnership, which would be equally split between each company and would be based in Singapore, would focus on marketing Iraqi crude in China, the people said. They said Iraq would supply tankers from its fleet to the partnership while Unipec would provide the financing, a relief to Baghdad’s cash-strapped budget. The relationship wouldn’t be exclusive and both sides could set up competing arrangements, the people added.
Asked by The Wall Street Journal about the talks, Iraq’s oil minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, said Sunday that he was traveling to China on Monday but declined to comment further. Spokesmen for Somo and Unipec’s parent, Sinopec, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
With its production fast ramping up, Iraq is increasingly focused on China. The country was Iraq’s largest market last year, buying 22% of its exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
But Baghdad is facing heightened competition from its neighbor Iran, on which oil-export restrictions could end as early as next month. Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a hearing on Thursday that sanctions relief on Tehran could start as early as January.
18 Comments on "Iraq Seeks China Oil Tie-Up Ahead of Iran Flood"
ennui2 on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 8:21 am
Translation: we didn’t “steal” Iraqi oil.
makati1 on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 8:20 pm
China is the new power in the financial world, no matter what Western press prints. Countries want to be part of the New Silk Road and the resulting increase in Eastern trade. Western consumers are dying. The other six billion are not.
kanon on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 7:14 pm
makati1: “Western consumers are dying. The other six billion are not.”
Time will tell. What is the elevation of the Mekong Delta? Bangladesh? What is the health status of Chinese city dwellers?
makati1 on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 8:03 pm
kanon, what is the elevation of Florida? New Jersey? Delaware? The streets of New York, Baltimore, Savannah, etc? The islands in Chesapeake Bay are already being submerged, forcing the people to move out.
If all of Greenland’s ice melts, the oceans will rise 20′. If Antarctica should all melt, it would add another 200′. That takes in everything east of I-95 in the States. Oops! There goes DC!
Not saying that other low-lying countries won’t have problems, but they always have and they will deal with it. But, be sure to look at your own locality before you point out another’s problem so you can be prepared for feedback.
GregT on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:27 pm
“Translation: we didn’t “steal” Iraqi oil.”
Your oligarchs could care less weather “you” get the oil or not. You are not a part of the “we” that are playing these games ennui2. They could give a shit about you. As much as you like to believe that you matter, you are less than a nobody to them.
Apneaman on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 9:32 pm
Greg, here’s a good bit on that “we” shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPDT5qHtZ4
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 10:18 pm
I think Greg, Ennui should watch the following video to understand what we signify to the oligarchs and how useful we are to them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A
peakyeast on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 10:44 pm
@onlooker: That video cannot be seen by too few.
Stefan is a great, very intelligent man and he has made many good videos.
GregT on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 10:48 pm
I spent the last 30 years of my life working for a multi billion dollar “corporation”. Advertising and promotion consumed the biggest slice of our operating budget. Human psychology has been very well studied, and has been proven to be an effective tool. Ennui2 is a prime example of a dumbed down sheep. With the right indoctrination, the sheep will fight in support of their own fleecing, and even their own butchering. The human psyche is very easily manipulated.
GregT on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 10:57 pm
That video should be mandatory. Not just to watch, but to understand.
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 11:15 pm
So true Greg. Ennui is a prime example because otherwise he strikes me as an intelligent guy. The real trick has been to do this brain washing without the brainwashed have any suspicion or knowledge. The true slavery as this video makes clear is the slavery of the mind. Thus the final line, “To see the farm is to leave the farm”
onlooker on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 11:20 pm
I’ve read stuff that indicates that all this psychological stuff has been widely studied and employed by the elites. Any people in power readily know the power of propaganda. Again I cite the video for making clear how much more effective it is to have willing slaves than unwilling ones. I sometimes think the reason I have been into uncovering so many things is because I to the core of my being reject being manipulated and enslaved.
GregT on Tue, 22nd Dec 2015 11:51 pm
The only reason why willing slaves have become the norm onlooker, is because of a cheap and abundant supply of energy. Expect humans to devolve back to unwilling slavery when that source of energy becomes problematic.
You said somewhere before onlooker, that you have always questioned the world and tried to keep an open mind. The main reason why you have been able to uncover so many things, is because you have been willing to look. Many cannot. They find it uncomfortable and confusing when their world view is threatened. Cognitive dissonance.
makati1 on Wed, 23rd Dec 2015 12:03 am
Onlooker, I believe that propaganda/brainwashing has been developed to the point where slavery is actually desired by the majority in the US. It begins at birth and has been in use for generations. They called it “regularly scheduled programming” and no one questioned it’s meaning.
Religion is just another form of it, used throughout the world, for millenia. That indoctrination also begins at birth and promises you a life after death and seeing your family again, or 70 virgins or … if you only….
The government promises you a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage, security, etc. All lies.
It takes a lot of willpower to rip off the blinders and the rose colored glasses and see the real world. Most never do, nor want to. Government brainwashing is more difficult in the 3rd world where TV is not common and the internet too expensive for most. You see it more in the Western countries and the wannabees like Japan.
At this point, I think it is too late.
makati1 on Wed, 23rd Dec 2015 12:06 am
GregT, I hope you are correct that humanity will overcome their brainwashing, but I doubt it. You said yourself that they have to want to and most would rather die than change. So be it. Fewer moths to feed.
GregT on Wed, 23rd Dec 2015 12:14 am
I have no illusions of humanity ever overcoming the brainwashing Makati. The desire to belong, and to follow, is in our nature. Exactly the reasons why indoctrination is so successful.
JuanP on Wed, 23rd Dec 2015 6:05 am
How could we overcome our own nature? We will be completely fucked up as a species until the instant we extinct ourselves.
joe on Sat, 26th Dec 2015 9:23 am
When Cheney and Bush et al, illegally invaded iraq in 2003 they did so under a mission called ‘operation iraqi liberation’, soon after it was renamed operation iraqi freedom. As al qaeda in iraq (now called isis) blew up everything in Anbar province, making it ungovernable the US secured the oil first, then they removed the government, root and branch, even the school administrators, then sat back and watched the country ethnically cleanse itself. Then they tried to introduce ‘democracy’, because those darn rag heads just wouldn’t stop suicide bombing and ied’ing all those brave private security companies we paid to do our dirty work.
The really sick truth is that America never left Iraq
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_contractor_deaths_in_Iraq
Iraq selling oil to China under open contracts with each side totally open to changing the contract is exactly what America wants. In Saddam time he would have sold the oil in euros, half for tanks, half for cash, much of it would have been handed out to the tribes, the rest would have been kept for him and his depraved sons.