Bid Round 5 – A Hybrid Contract

Iraq’s fifth bid round launched last year has fallen victim to national electioneering. After missing the first deadline in the timeline announced end of November to conduct a roadshow for the tendered exploration blocks by early February, technocrats at Iraq’s oil ministry received sudden instructions to cut through the usual process and prepare to award exploration and development contracts by April 15. Just like the Iraq National Oil Co (INOC)…

Bid Round Five

By tendering new blocks for exploration, all of them close to the border with either Iran or Kuwait, Iraq is trying to catch up on the effort to increase its oil and gas reserves that has been interrupted by two major wars with the two neighbors in 1980 and 1990. To convince international oil companies to participate in this round, the fifth since Iraq opened its oil sector to foreign…