Jimmy Pan

Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power…

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It said the companies had been chosen because they had been advising the ministry without charge for two years before being awarded the contracts, and because these companies had the needed technology…

The companies provided free advice and training to the Iraqis. This relationship with the ministry, said company officials and an American diplomat, was a reason the contracts were not opened to competitive bidding.

A total of 46 companies, including the leading oil companies of China, India and Russia, had memorandums of understanding with the Oil Ministry, yet were not awarded contracts….

This same thing happened with British American Tobacco in the former Soviet Union. BAT offered up leaf production and processing advice in an effort to demonstrate good faith to the government. As soon as conditions were ripe though, BAT started developing their own tobacco production centers and buying out existing ones. They aided in “general transit” (smuggling) in order to help tobacco cross borders duty free, thus avoiding paying taxes to the government. Same shit.