Iraq Watch – Legal Limbo

9 November 2008 In response to the controversy over whether the Iraqi oil ministry has the right to award oil field development contracts under its first bid round, former Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban argued that the ministry relies on a 1987 law that placed the powers to sign contracts into the hands of the oil minister and on the fact that the 2005 Iraqi constitution does not require the legislature’s…

Iraq Watch – Confused Priorities

26 September 2008 A second bid round for Iraq’s upstream sector, currently being prepared by the oil ministry, promises to transform the country’s oil industry. If all goes to plan, a second set of oil and gas fields would be awarded by the end of next year, hard on the heels of the first eight fields announced this summer — and the Iraqi oil industry will be bustling. That’s good…

Iraq Watch – The Need for Clarity

17 October 2008 Iraq finally unveiled the terms of its big upstream opening. International oil companies now realize that to win a 20-year service contract to rehabilitate and redevelop some of Iraq’s giant oil fields, they need to offer it high production targets at the lowest cost. For committing to spend money on rehabilitation of infrastructure and drilling of wells as well as a new reassessment of recoverable reserves in…

Iraq: Contract Labyrinth

19 December 2008 Iraq’s latest draft model contract for its first postwar bid round, recently made available to participating firms, has failed to bridge the gap between the oil ministry and international oil companies, analysis of the latest text reveals. The two sides may struggle to narrow their differences in the short time frame announced by Baghdad, which aims to publish the final technical service contract by April 2009 and…