“It is difficult for any major oil company not to be in Iraq,” Total’s global exploration and production chief Yves-Louis Darricarrére told TIME last month. Despite intense negotiations, the French company was outbid by an alliance of Shell and Malaysia’s Petronas for Iraq’s giant Majnoon field. Total CEO Christophe de Margerie told TIME last Sunday that he had put in a “fair bid,” and that he doubted his competitors would make solid profits in Iraq, given the stiff terms.

That might have been the thinking of U.S. oil giants, which largely stayed away from last week’s bidding, and which have failed to negotiate oil deals with Iraq’s government outside of the public auction process. Iraqi officials say they are not awarding contracts based on political considerations, but simply a straight comparison of prices and production targets.

via U.S. Companies Shut Out as Iraq Auctions Its Oil Fields – TIME.

The stenographer at TIME is trying to advance the idea that the Iraq War was not at all a war for oil, based on who won the contracts recently, as if transnational corporations have national loyalties or something. TOTAL^® bullshit. Here’s another angle to that same story…

Big oil companies tried to steal Iraq’s oil for a song while Iraq’s government was in total disarray as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a tactical move that Naomi Klein has called The Shock Doctrine. The only reason it didn’t work to Big Oil’s advantage this time is because this tactic was exposed early enough and made people aware of what was being attempted before the Oil Law made it through the Iraqi Parliament.

Meanwhile, while the Oil Law was failing to be pushed through, smugglers are suspected of diverting billions of dollars’ worth of crude onto tankers because the oil metering system that was supposed to monitor how much crude was flowing into and out of Al Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT) and Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT) has not worked since the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and Halliburton and others contracted to fix it failed to complete those contracts.

Now, as for who got the oil field contracts in this recent auction, most of the American oil companies didn’t even bother to put in a bid because to play the auction game on a level oil field (har! har!) was not at all what they had in mind in the first place — i.e.- secret energy task force meetings with Cheney’s staff conducted behind closed doors that sought the privatization of Iraq oil fields right after Bush/Cheney got into office during the first term and before 9-11 — remember that? Apparently the stenographer at TIME didn’t remember that part.

Now, here’s the really gut-wrenching part of the TIME article, the quote from Total SA CEO Christophe de Margerie of France who claims to have put in a “fair” bid during this auction which failed to secure a contract — while supporting the idea that the invasion wasn’t about the oil, which he allegedly tried bribery to obtain previously. Oh yes, Total SA did have an eye on that Iraqi oil… so did the rest of the transnationals… and we know the Cheney Energy Task Force had maps of Iraq’s oil fields and that was at the top of their agenda in January, 2001.

What you may not know is that immediately before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as France was running interference in the UN, Total SA inked an agreement with Saddam Hussein to develop Iraq’s southern oil fields (reserve value est. $40-60B). Total SA lost all that business when the new Iraqi government voided its contracts.

This is the same CEO Christophe de Margerie who was investigated for alleged bribery of Iraqi officials through intermediaries to secure the oil during the United Nations-sponsored oil-for-food program. And this is not the only ethics controversy involving officials from Total SA.