By Benoit Faucon and David Gauthier-Villars
Dow Jones Newswires
January 21, 2003
"For 30 years, French business has enjoyed a close relationship with Iraq. Baghdad has a French phone system, French cars are on the streets, and France's oil giant TotalFinaElf SA (TOT) has been working hard to get access to Iraq's massive oil reserves. But with a U.S.-led coalition threatening to march into Baghdad to topple President Saddam Hussein, France Inc. is worried that the relationship may be shattered - and that the big contracts to rebuild Iraq may instead go to U.S. rivals."
...
"The biggest loser could be TotalFinaElf. Iraq's oil potential suggests its exports could climb rapidly if sanctions were lifted to an estimated EUR25 billion per year from EUR3.2 billion in 2001. The French oil firm spent six years in the 1990s doing preparatory work on the giant Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields, but it has no guarantee it will be named operator of the fields by Iraqi authorities on the day economic sanctions are removed."