The draft oil and gas law has been with the Council of Representatives since 2007 and was followed later by the INOC draft law. There were several reasons behind the legislative stalemate, but the main one is the request of the Kurdish parliamentary block to postpone the debate on oil legislation until an accord is reached regarding the pending issues in the oil and gas law. The main pending issues…
Month: September 2010
Gas Exploration, A Government Priority?
As Iraq’s third bid round for gas field development drags on, mired by successive delays, with no viable commercial structure in the draft model contract and confusion over the utilization of gas to be produced, Iraq’s next government is better off focusing on increasing Iraq’s gas reserves by launching an exploration drive to find new gas resources and develop them. Iraq has 65 defined exploration blocks on its maps, the…
A History of Waste
Iraq is struggling between the urge to become a regional – and eventually an international – player on the gas scene and the need to supply a domestic market whose demand for gas for power generation is expected to continue rising drastically. That urge is exacerbated by the KRG’s ability to conclude swift deals to export gas regardless of whether such deals – which, like exporting oil, would require state…