22 June 2007 After weeks of haggling and tough bargaining, Iraq’s central government and the northern Kurdish region have agreed a draft revenue-sharing law — opening the way for parliament’s approval of a hydrocarbon law regulating international investments in Iraqi oil and gas fields. The draft revenue law is a compromise that ensures the Kurds get an adequate and timely share of state revenues, but keeps the collection and distribution…
Month: April 2009
Iraq’s Emerging Alliances
24 August 2007 When Iraq eventually opens again for upstream business, the new rule in town will be competitive bidding — as opposed to former one-on-one negotiations. In effect, this will throw the game open to all for giant fields previously negotiated by international firms, such as West Qurna, Majnoon and Nahr bin Umar. Alliances have already emerged between some companies — including Russian Lukoil and US ConocoPhillips, Chevron with…
Power Struggle in South Iraq
31 August 2007 British forces, in control of southern Iraq since 2003, are expected to complete their withdrawal from Basrah in September and redeploy to a desert airbase, having already exited most urban centers in the last year. The move is interpreted by some as a prelude to a full British military withdrawal from Iraq, and a fight for supremacy is already raging in Iraq’s oil heartland among competing political…
Iraq: Big Hopes, Little Progress
14 September 2007 International oil companies, big and small, flocked to Dubai over the past two weeks to hear Iraqi oil officials expound the riches of their oil fields. Few needed convincing of the country’s potential: After all, where else in the world are there 110 discovered reservoirs in almost 80 oil fields, with less than half developed, mostly partially? Yet their mood was dampened by the simple fact that…