Perspective: Iraq plays for high stakes

12 November 2004 Iraq plans to revive its national oil company, dismantled by Saddam Hussein, by the end of the year. But the structure and role of Iraq National Oil Co. are proving highly contentious, with arguments between Iraqi oil veterans, oil ministry officials and politicians in the interim establishment a reflection of the conflicting visions of Iraq’s future. Energy Intelligence Middle East correspondent Ruba Husari reports on the controversy,…

Perspective: Iraq — the view from Tehran

17  December 2004 With the date fast approaching for the first parliamentary elections since Saddam Hussein was toppled, Baghdad’s neighbors are already fretting about the likely outcome: a Shiite majority for the first time in modern Iraqi history. That could lead to a dramatic shift in the geopolitical balance between Shiite and Sunni Muslims across the Middle East. Expressing the concerns of many in the region, Jordan’s King Abdullah last…

Iraq Prepares Ground for Future Contracts

14 June 2004 Iraq’s oil ministry is setting out on a process of preparing a new oil policy, as well as drafting model contracts and a petroleum law, to be approved later by the country’s elected bodies, Iraq’s new Oil Minister Thamer al-Ghadban said in an interview. The work aims to prepare Iraq for its political evolution, which should see the adoption of a new constitution in around 18 months,…

Iraq Establishes Supreme Council for Oil, Gas

19 July 2004 Iraq’s interim government has taken its first step toward institutionalizing oil policy in Iraq by establishing the first supreme council for oil and gas. “We don’t want oil policy to be in the hands of one person but it’s a matter for the whole nation represented by the prime minister and other members of the cabinet,” Thamer al-Ghadban, Iraq’s interim oil minister, told International Oil Daily from…