The Iraqi Cornucopia

Is the road to Hell really paved in good intentions, or is it that the people asking for favors haven’t thought through what they were asking for?
The New York Times reported Hunt Oil’s exploration agreement in Dihok Governorate of the autonomous Kurdish area of Iraq could unravel the one thing the Iraqi parliament has done.
Just when the Bush administration is trying desperately to find some evidence the Iraqi national government has used the time the surge bought for it to act like a government, the petroleum law is in danger of dissolving.
Since the Norwegian oil company, DNO, has a production sharing agreement in the same governorate and has already found evidence of oil in several of the wells it has drilled, it seems unfair to blame Hunt if the Iraqi oil law unravels.
Oil exploration deals to friends run in the Bush family history.
Not always with the expected results. Almost the first thing George H. W. Bush did as Nixon’s envoy to the People’s Republic of China was to help his old friend, mentor, and business partner, Hugh Liedtke, get an exploration concession offshore China.
Ray L. Hunt, the president, chairman, and owner of Hunt Oil probably would have done well to consider what happened to Liedtke. His company, Pennzoil, spent a lot of money and didn’t find any oil. And, despite a $3 billion cash infusion from Texaco, Pennzoil is no longer an exploration and production company.
Hunt has benefited more directly from his support of George W. Bush’s campaigns. In addition to being twice named to the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Bush named James Oberwetter, the Hunt Oil public relations man, ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Hunt has oil production in Yemen, adjacent to Saudi Arabia. It is not known if Hunt benefited from the appointment.
Based on the Pennzoil experience, Hunt Oil would look like a candidate for a short, if it were publicly traded.


Tom Gordon
Tsg0008@sbcglobal.com