Shell Bemoans Slow Pace of Iraqi Oil Law

As protests start against Iraq’s controversial oil law, Shell has criticized the fact that progress on the law “doesn’t go very fast”. The oil company says it hopes Iraq will pass the law some time this year and sees this and improved security as prerequisites for being able to work there.
“You need basically two green lights before you can work…first of all you have to know the rules of the game,” CEO Jeroen van der Veer said yesterday. He told an Iraqi questioner he hoped the oil law would be passed this year “but it doesn’t go very fast.”

If this and the security requirement were met, then companies like Shell could create a “win-win situation” in Iraq, “but it needs those two conditions,” said van der Veer.
The trouble with Shell’s “win-win” scenario is that the people of Iraq lose out…