OIL SHARES FOR IRAQIS

DECEMBER 22, 2009, 10:06 P.M. ET

We Iraqis know that our oil reserves are the baseline of our status in the region and the lubricant of our liberation. We are not ashamed to say so. Blood for oil is our reality, and we intend to redeem the terrible price we have paid.
One chance to do that will come in February, when we hold our third free national election since Saddam Hussein was removed from power. Because our people's prosperity depends on oil, each political party must put forward its plan for developing our petrochemical industry. For me and my colleagues who are forming the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), the best way forward is to transform our country and our economy by giving all Iraqis a direct share of our oil income.

The INA agrees that significant foreign investment, and the legitimate profit of those who invest, is necessary for successful oil and economic development. The INA also recognizes that Iraq must, at the same time, safeguard its own patrimony.

This balance is for the next government to strike. The recent competition for Iraq's resources by international oil companies is welcomed. But a headlong rush to auction those reserves right now—before election day—by the outgoing Iraqi administration will only make it more difficult to developing our oil industry in a way that wins broad support.

The INA's domestic oil and petrochemical policy is to transfer Iraq's oil-wealth to the individual Iraqi citizen as much as possible. Decades of dictatorship concentrated wealth in the hands of Saddam and his criminal gang. As the people's representatives, INA pledges to directly enrich Iraq's people.

The INA's plan aims to increase oil production and help more Iraqis gain the legal, technical, and financial skills needed to run our oil industry. The INA is also calling for creating an Iraqi National Oil Company (INOC) that will provide every citizen stock in the company and share in its profits.

The platform of the INA promises the Iraqi people that the oil resources are "purely the property of each Iraqi individual through the ownership of one share for every individual to which is not for sale or inheritance and returned to the INOC after his death. . . . and to allocate 10% of the profit to be distributed equally among Iraqis."
Under our platform, the INOC will assume contractual control of all Iraqi oil. The INOC will provide legal, financial, and administrative personnel, and it will draw on the advice of international experts to negotiate and implement contracts.

The INA will also not ignore the corruption that has been endemic to the Iraqi oil industry since the United Nation's Oil-for-Food Program was created in 1995. The INA will make anti-corruption and transparency initiatives a central part of the new Iraqi oil program. We will create an energy council to oversee oil policy. And we will re-establish the Iraqi government as a reliable and fair partner in international negotiations by ensuring that all ministries act in the interests of the Iraqi people.

It is our belief that this platform will attract significant popular support in the upcoming elections and that it will be necessary for the INA to begin its immediate implementation if we are popularly endorsed.
Agreements struck in the interim will be unneeded impediments to our plans. We urge that everyone concerned with Iraq's future and with the stable conduct of international oil markets wait until the voice of the Iraqi people can be heard before bidding on Iraqi oil contracts.

If voters empower the INA in the upcoming elections, they will have done so after seeing our clear path forward for Iraq's reintegration into the world economy. Our program is centered on Iraqi interests and it recognizes that those interests are best served by cooperating with other countries and with foreign companies.
Mr. Uloum is a former Iraqi oil minister and a leading member of the Iraqi National Alliance.

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