BP warned against Iraq oil ‘rip-off’ at AGM

10.30am, THURSDAY 12 APRIL

Excel Centre, Docklands, London

Activists from the Hands Off Iraqi Oil campaign today delivered a warning to oil company BP that it will face massive public outrage if it continues in its attempts to ‘rip off’ Iraqi oil.

They were demonstrating at the company’s Annual General Meeting in London's Docklands against the role BP has played in lobbying for a controversial new oil law in Iraq. The law would transfer control over the majority of the country’s huge oil reserves from the public sector to multinational companies, for the first time in 35 years.

BP has been at the forefront of efforts to gain access to Iraq's oil since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

- In 2003 and 2004, successive BP executives left to work as oil advisers to the occupation authorities in Iraq, paid for by the UK government.

- One of these advisers wrote a 'Code of Practice' for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, which called for multinational companies to play the major role in developing Iraq's oil, and for the Ministry's policies to be compatible with those of BP.

- Since 2003, BP has also been one of six major oil companies working through a lobbying organisation called the International Tax and Investment Centre (ITIC) to push for the handover of control of Iraq's oil to transnational oil companies.

- Together with the other major oil companies, and the British government, they have pushed the Iraqi government to agree to allow companies to take control of Iraqi oil production through controversial long-term contracts known as ‘production sharing agreements’.

Jonathan Stevenson, from Hands Off Iraqi Oil, said:

“As if the devastation brought by the invasion and occupation of Iraq was not enough, Iraq’s people now face the prospect of losing billions of dollars in oil revenues to foreign companies. Civil society groups in Iraq are resisting this theft of Iraq’s future in extraordinary circumstances. We’re here to serve notice on BP, and other oil companies, that those around the world who opposed the invasion will also oppose their attempts to rip off Iraq's oil.”

Rebecca Fisher, also from Hands Off Iraqi Oil, said:

“We are here demonstrating our solidarity with Iraqis and to tell BP staff and shareholders that we know what is going on. We must stop these contracts from being signed if Iraq is ever to gain true political and economic independence.”