BP Wants Stability, Oil, Contract Laws, Before Entering Iraq

23 March 2007

UK supermajor BP is staying away from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, to avoid antagonizing the central government in Baghdad. However, despite the Iraqi government’s recent approval of a draft hydrocarbon law, BP will not venture into the country until there is a rule of law and it can be sure that contracts signed with the existing authorities would survive political change, a senior company executive said.

“Every country has changes of governments and Iraq will be no exception. What is important from our perspective is that there is at least some stability and a sense of the law and contract law,” Steve Peacock, BP’s president for exploration and production in the Middle East and Asia told International Oil Daily…

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BP . Exxon Mobil . hydrocarbon law . INOC . Kurdistan . new fields . oil recovery . parliament . Peacock . producing fields . Rumaila . Shahristani 2007

Iraq Buys Favor With China on Al-Ahdab

27 March 2007

The Iraqi government decided to renegotiate an old production sharing contract which had been signed by China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to develop the 90,000 barrel per day Al-Ahdab oil field with the former Iraqi regime “for political and legal reasons” rather than retender, a senior Iraqi government official told International Oil Daily late last week.

CNPC officials traveled to Baghdad earlier this month for a first meeting with the Iraqi oil ministry on the fate of the production sharing agreement it signed in 1997 following the Iraqi cabinet approval of a draft petroleum law in late February. The draft bill, which has yet to be endorsed by the Iraqi parliament, stipulated in Article 40 that the oil ministry…

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Ahdab . Amara . CNPC . contracts . drilling . hydrocarbon law . Lukoil . model contract . Noor . ONGC . PetroVietnam . PSA . SPC . West Qurna . western desert 2007

Kurdish-Iraqi Oil Minister Spat Escalates

1 May 2007

A war of words between Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani and Kurdish Energy Minister Ashti Hawrami over who has the authority to sign contracts with foreign companies, and over the extent of the proposed new Iraqi national oil company’s control over the country’s oil fields, is threatening to derail the draft oil law approved by the Iraqi cabinet in February.

Al-Shahristani last week warned foreign companies that they should not sign oil and gas deals with any authority other than his ministry until the new Iraqi oil and gas draft law has been approved by parliament. The strongly worded threat came after United Arab Emirates-based Dana Gas signed a service contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to develop…

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annexes . boundary fields . Chemchemal . contracts . exploration . exploration blocks . Hawrami . hydrocarbon law . INOC . Khor Mor . KRG . producing fields . PSC . revenue sharing . Shahristani 2007

Iraqi Oil Law Still Awaits Kurds’ Approval

28 June 2007

Iraq’s draft petroleum law is still awaiting the go-ahead from Kurdish officials following changes to the text introduced by the state Shura Council, a panel of judges tasked with reviewing the legal language of the draft, a senior Iraqi government official said Wednesday.

“We have sent the draft to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and we are waiting for their comments on the changes in the language introduced by the Shura Council and which also affects some of the agreements reached on the draft,” Thamir Ghadban, energy adviser to the Iraqi prime minister said at an industry conference in Istanbul.

Ghadban, who is a member of the ministerial energy committee and one of the main authors of the draft petroleum…

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annexes . energy committee . federal oil and gas council . financial resources law . Ghadban . hydrocarbon law . INOC . KRG . kurds . oil ministry law . Shura council 2007