Critical Choices

It took the Iraqi oil ministry eight months to negotiate technical support contracts (TSCs) with major oil companies for five oil fields before they were cancelled at the last minute in June 2008. Those TSCs could have offered Iraq the first significant foreign help in rehabilitating its producing oil fields in at least three decades. True, they were no-bid contracts but the commitment on the side of the state and…

Jabbar Al-Luaibi

Former Director General of South Oil Co and oil ministry advisor Jabbar al-Luaibi discusses in an interview with Ruba Husari in Dubai May 16, 2009 the state of the oil fields in southern Iraq and the reasons behind the recent loss in production capacity at Iraq’s major producing oil fields.   Q: You brought the oil sector back from the ashes in 2003 and ramped up production till you achieved…

1st Licensing Round-Factbox

Results of the First Licensing Round announced in Baghdad June 30, 2009 Objective Of The Process Prequalification Process Timeline Contract Areas Fields Overview Participating Companies Participation Fees Consortia Bidding 1st Licensing Round Fields Reserves (table) 1st Licensing Round Prequalification Process & Results 1st Licensing Round Fields Map

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…