Pave: It IS All About The Oil

Le jour 146 de Sarko

As every European knows America is all about greed. For example the invasion of Iraq was contrived to put America-friendly robber barons in place to help America steal all of Iraq's oil.

And as every Frenchie who has hurled a paving stone or torched a Renault celebrating the Republic knows, [Tucket and swell of the La Marseillaise.*] France, she is different. France is all about "une logique de paix" and rainbows and sweetness and puppies. France would never stoop to dirty her hands in exploitive oil (and this and this).

[Under music, faint rhythmic tramping of the fédérés, who, one by one, take up the anthem until we are forced to shout over the songful din.]

France -- and French folk everywhere -- will gladly do without heating oil, electricity, diesel, jet fuel, gasoline, plastics, asphalt, paraffin, or any petroleum dependent product before one puppy is lost, before one rainbow is bloodied, before another unicorn is knackered for tainted oil. First and always France, she is about...

[Abrupt needle scratch. Music out.]

...advantage France.

Nothing new there. That is the general idea governing the business of nations --great and small or, as regards France, middling -- to seek advantage. The trick is not to sell the national soul in the process. Pave does not begrudge France her self-dealing. Pave only asks that France not pretend otherwise (and this and this and this, to link but a few fairy tales). That she spare us her pious baloney.

IRAN WARNS FRANCE OVER TOTAL OIL CONTRACT

TEHRAN September 27, 2007 (AFP) - Iran warned France it was prepared to go ahead with a major gas project with Total using Iranian firms alone if the French oil giant gives in to political pressure and does not swiftly implement the deal. Caretaker Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari:

I have a message for French President Sarkozy. If Total does not come here, right here, the Pars LNG contracts will be handed over to capable Iranian hands for them to carry out.

IRAN SAYS OILFIELDS 'TOO ATTRACTIVE' FOR FRANCE TO QUIT

TEHRAN October 7, 2007 (AFP) — Iran on Saturday rejected the possibility of a French investors' pullout of its oil and gas sector amid calls by Paris for tougher sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, the ISNA news agency reported. Deputy oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari:

Iran's resources and market are too attractive for the French to give up.

... Under a deal last year, French oil giant Total is set to exploit phase 11 of Iran's South Pars gas field to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export and to build a liquefaction plant, but the deal is held up by a dispute over prices.

Nozari said "we have not been informed of any official position regarding a withdrawal by Phase 11 LNG buyers."

THE PRICE OF IMPOSING EU SANCTIONS ON IRAN

BRUSSELS Octobrer 5, 2007 (AFP) - Italy, Germany and France would have to pay the heaviest price for any European Union sanctions against Iran, at a time when the Islamic republic is already turning more toward Asia for its business.

... Once ranked third in terms of market share for imported products by Iran, Paris fell to fifth in 2006. Crude oil represents about 97 percent of French imports from Iran, while refined oil products from France are among the biggest items heading the other way. ... Iran is also important for France's auto sector. It accounts for around two thirds of French sales to the Middle East.

All of which goes a long way toward explaining this earlier French shrug-off:

I would say that what is dangerous about this situation [scil., Iranian uranium enrichment] is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb - having one, maybe a second one a little later, well, that's not very dangerous.

Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack,
signaling that France has decided
Europe can live with a nuclear Iran
January 29, 2007 (IHT)

IRAN. MYANMAR. HEY! WHERE'S THE FRENCH PEACE MOB?
Pas De Sang Pour Le Pétrole ! Et Pas De Bouleversements !

TOTAL, IN SPOTLIGHT, DEFENDS IRAN AND MYANMAR DEALS
PARIS September 27, 2007 (AFP)

FRANCE NOT DEMANDING TOTAL PULLOUT FROM MYANMAR
PARIS September 27, 2007 (AFP)

FOR TOTAL, PULLING OUT OF MYANMAR NOT THE ANSWER

PARIS September 27, 2007 (IHT) - Jean-François Lassalle, a vice-president for public affairs at Total:

We are convinced that through our presence we are helping to improve the daily lives of tens of thousands of people who benefit from our social and economic initiatives. Our departure could cause the population even greater hardship and is thus an unacceptable risk. ... To those who ask us to leave the country, we reply that far from solving Myanmar's problems, a forced withdrawal would only lead to our replacement by other operators probably less committed to the ethical principles guiding all our initiatives.

It is hard to imagine anything less than the Total commitment. (See next headline story below.)

Total has built its business chasing development projects in remote corners of the world, including in Iraq, where it is contending with accusations of improper dealings with a UN program that allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods while under UN sanctions.

French judges have twice held Christoph de Margerie, Total's chief executive, for questioning over the affair.

BELGIAN COURT REPORTEDLY REOPENS CASE
AGAINST TOTAL'S OPERATIONS IN MYANMAR

BERLIN October 4, 2007 (Market Watch/Independent) - The federal prosecutor's office in Belgium has re-opened a five-year-old case brought by four refugees from Myanmar, who allege that France's largest company financed human rights violations and used forced labor supplied by the junta to build a gas pipeline in the 1990s.

Myanmar opposition groups have for years alleged that Total was a major conduit for cash to the hardline military government but the complaint lodged in Belgium in 2002 goes much further than that.

... Total admits it paid the Myanmar army to "protect" the project but says it had no direct evidence of human rights violations.

CEO SAYS FRENCH OIL GIANT TOTAL
WILL NOT PULL OUT OF MYANMAR
PARIS October 5, 2007 (IHT)

Sarko's France is not the same weaselly muddleheaded France as Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack's France. For one thing, there's less puff and more plain talk. One isn't constantly guessing after what is being said.**

Nos impératifs stratégiques: Contribuer activement au développement de la stabilité et de la sécurité hors de nos frontières, avec deux priorités : la lutte contre le terrorisme et la sécurisation de nos approvisionnements énergétiques.

[France's strategic imperatives: To contribute actively to the development of stability and security outside our borders, with two priorities: the fight against terrorism and the guaranteeing of our energy supplies.

Hervé Morin,
ministre de la Défense,
discours à l’Université de la Défense à Toulouse
11 septembre 2007 (Le ministère de la Défense)

No puppies, rainbows, or unicorns injured in the formulation of the above policy.

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* Hat tip to Iain Patterson's shrine site, marseillaise.org, for the music.

** For example what does this mean? Or this? Or this? And what is all this about?

PFFT (What is this?): All about the oil 4½ | Rayonnement français ½

Posted by Damian at October 8, 2007 07:30 PM