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PARIS, April 22 (Reuters) - French oil giant TotalFinaElf does not expect to be frozen out of oil contracts in Iraq despite France's tough opposition to the U.S.-led war, the firm's chief of exploration and production said on Tuesday. In an interview with Le Figaro newspaper, Christophe de Margerie dismissed rumours Total was on a "black list" of firms that would be denied lucrative contracts in post-war Iraq, although stressed the firm remained vigilant. "Of course, we remain extremely vigilant over the evolution of the situation, but our recent meetings, and there has been many of them, with our...

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said on Monday U.S. charges that Syria was developing chemical weapons and has offered refuge to Iraqi leaders should be addressed in the United Nations Security Council. Speaking during a visit to the Dominican Republic, Chretien said it was possible that nations, including Syria, had weapons of mass destruction. But he said U.N. Security Council resolution 1441, the 2002 resolution that threatened Iraq (news - web sites) with "serious consequences" if it did not scrap weapons of mass destruction, clearly established the procedure to follow in such cases. Chretien, a steadfast...

The Pentagon is drawing up a blacklist of non-US companies investing in Iran's energy sector with a possible view to barring them from US-awarded contracts in the reconstruction of neighbouring Iraq, according to private-sector sources close to the US defence department. The companies on the draft list include several from countries within the US-led "coalition of the willing", such as oil companies Shell of the UK and Italy's Eni. TotalFinaElf of France is also listed. President George W. Bush last year identified Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil" that pursued weapons of mass destruction and aided...

PARIS - Worried it could be shut out of business deals in postwar Iraq (news - web sites), France is drawing up plans to win French companies access to lucrative oil and reconstruction contracts, officials said Tuesday. The government is determined that French companies be part of the of rebuilding Iraq despite President Jacques Chirac's strident opposition to war, a Finance Ministry official said. Gilles Munier, an executive board member of the French-Iraq Association for Economic Cooperation, or AFICE, said business leaders and government representatives had set up a working group to study how to gain a foothold in postwar...

<p>ARRI, Nigeria - Ethnic militants threatened yesterday to blow up 11 multinational oil installations they said they captured in retaliation for government military raids.</p> <p>Dan Ekpebide, a leader of the Ijaw tribal fighters in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, said that on Friday his followers took over oil pipeline facilities belonging to ChevronTexaco, Royal/Dutch Shell, and TotalFinaElf.</p>

The numbers add up: Oil the factor for war on Iraq It is indeed interesting to note the differing views on the looming oil war in Iraq. I would term this as an "oil war" because I do not see any other justifications to call this as war o­n terrorism, WMD (weapons of mass destruction) or Saddam's human rights violations. As of October 2002, Iraq has an estimated at 112.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, along with roughly 220 billion barrels of probable and possible resources. Oil experts believe that Iraq's true resource potential may be far greater...

Opinion polls show almost 80% of people in France are against a US-led war against Iraq. Many of those see American military and economic aims in Iraq as one and the same thing. America's critics claim that America's policy on Iraq is driven by its appetite for oil. But could similar claims be made about France? Power games During the late 1970s, French companies started work on the Tamuz One nuclear reactor near Baghdad - designed to produce plutonium - and on a second reactor, Tamuz Two. The first was destroyed by Israeli fighter bombers in 1981. During the Iran-Iraq...