From Lord Howell of Guildford.

Sir, With reference to your editorial “Investing in Iraq” (July 1): I think you may have the situation the wrong way round.

You say that “Iraq’s government is under great pressure to increase output as quickly as possible”. In fact it is under great pressure to do the opposite, both from internal political interests and from outside ideological campaigners who have their own anti-western agenda and want to see more, and not less, “resource nationalism”.

Strong voices can be heard in Baghdad urging that production should be kept down to around 3m barrels per day (the peak reached briefly in Saddam Hussein’s days), that the foreigners should be kept well out and the oil left in the ground for future generations.

The two-year service agreements recently offered to some of the oil majors are a feeble substitute for the new partnership needed between the state oil company, INOC, and the international oil companies which could swiftly restore Iraq as a significant power in the region and lift its people out of their impoverished and violent past.

The true interests of the Iraqi people will be best served not by inward-looking or backward-looking attitudes but by expanding the flow of oil revenues as soon as possible, while the price stays high, by seeing that they are fairly distributed and wisely and transparently spent, and by combining the best of Iraqi national skills with international private sector enterprise in delivering the high output that Iraq’s colossal reserves should be fully able to sustain.

David Howell,
UK House of Lords