For me, the scary thought is that the Chilcot Enquiry would not have had this information, although it is likely that this article may make them change their mind.Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.
The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
The minutes of a series of meetings between ministers and senior oil executives are at odds with the public denials of self-interest from oil companies and Western governments at the time.
The documents were not offered as evidence in the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry into the UK's involvement in the Iraq war. In March 2003, just before Britain went to war, Shell denounced reports that it had held talks with Downing Street about Iraqi oil as "highly inaccurate". BP denied that it had any "strategic interest" in Iraq, while Tony Blair described "the oil conspiracy theory" as "the most absurd".
But documents from October and November the previous year paint a very different picture.
Five months before the March 2003 invasion, Baroness Symons, then the Trade Minister, told BP that the Government believed British energy firms should be given a share of Iraq's enormous oil and gas reserves as a reward for Tony Blair's military commitment to US plans for regime change.
As for this situation, it all seems very dodgy indeed, and until this had come through I didn't really oppose the Iraq War but now, dear lord. We went to war for the wrong reason. Massively. The thought of how many British soldiers died just for some oil? Doesn't bear thinking about...
Have to say, I'm not surprised that this has come out, and it makes me slightly embarrassed to be British right about now.
Your thoughts, Metropollers?
