Mission Accomplished

One thing the Bush administration wanted to do was to overturn the New Deal and shrink the government to a size it could be drowned in a bathtub (Norquest: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010514/dreyfuss).

Another goal was to get 'western big oil back in control of some of the production in the Mid-East. With the financial crisis and Shell contracts, maybe George really can stand in front of his "Mission Accomplished" banner after all!

BAGHDAD, Nov 8 (Reuters) - The head of Iraq's parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee said on Saturday he was concerned about a lack of transparency in a flare gas contract which the government has signed with oil major Royal Dutch Shell (nyse: RDSA - news - people ).
Shell is finalising details of the multi-billion-dollar plan, a joint venture with Iraq's state-run Southern Gas Company, before a final agreement is signed. An initial deal was signed in September.

Shell says the deal gives the joint venture a monopoly over all of the natural gas collected as a by-product of oil production in Iraq's rich southern oil fields in Basra.

Some Iraqi politicians have expressed alarm that such a deal could be signed without any tendering process.

'There hasn't been much transparency in this agreement,' Ali Hussain Balou, head of the Oil and Gas Committee, told Reuters. 'Shell signed this agreement with the ministry ... They did not give a chance to another company. We want to know why.'

full story at: http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/11/08/afx5668167.html