US Energy Policy Linked to Iraq War?

From a piece by Larry Everest in the San Francisco Chronicle today:

As early as April 17, 1995, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. petroleum giants realized that "Iraq is the biggie" in terms of future oil production, that the U.S. oil companies were "worried about being left out" of Iraq's oil dealings due to the antagonism between Washington and Baghdad, and that they feared that "the companies that win the rights to develop Iraqi fields could be on the road to becoming the most powerful multinationals of the next century."

U.N. sanctions against Iraq, maintained at the insistence of the United States and Britain, prevented these deals from being consummated.

OK, that sent a shiver up my spine. I've thought a lot about what the energy policy development was about that required so much secrecy besides hiding how much the energy corporations had contributed... but this.... if true....