OK:

This Reuters story says the U.S. refuses to recognize that Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, an Iraqi exile, is now in charge in Baghdad, despite the fact that he seems to have appointed himself mayor of the city, at least temporarily.

But this Financial Times story says that something called the Co-ordinating Committee for the Oil Ministry ("which few of the employees had heard of") now controls the oil ministry of Iraq. And the committee, according to FT, "draws its authority from a self-declared local government led by Mohamed Mohsen al-Zubaidi," which in turn is "backed by the Iraqi National Congress" -- the exile organization led by Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi.

So a Chalabi subordinate is, by fiat, in charge of Iraq's oil. Maybe.

In any case, it appears from the FT article that the oil ministry's old director general is still in charge, sort of -- which is fine by me, because I really like his attitude:

"I was a DG (director general) in the old administration, and no one has told me I'm not a DG anymore," he said....

...he lamented the whole US approach to dealing with post-war Iraq. "We have a lot of experience with coups d'etat and this one is the worst," he said. "Any colonel in the Iraqi army will tell you that when he does a coup he goes to the broadcasting station with five announcements.

"The first one is long live this, down with that. The second one is your new government is this and that. The third is the list of the people to go on retirement. The fourth one, every other official is to report back to work tomorrow morning. The fifth is the curfew."

This is usually done within one hour, he added. "Now we are waiting more than a week and still we hear nothing from them."