BR 4: The New Incentives

Companies prequalified to bid for one of 12 blocks in Iraq’s upcoming fourth licensing round have since last week been poring over the adjusted terms introduced by Iraq’s oil ministry to the second version of the draft “exploration, development and production service contract” or EDPSC. The new terms offer incentives to companies based on comments and observations they provided to the petroleum contracting and licensing department. It took longer than…

KRG Contracts Conundrum

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced earlier this month that the oil ministry approved the two production sharing contracts for the Tawke and Taqtaq fields, signed before the constitution was drafted, for a variety of reasons which to his mind justify the legalization by Baghdad. A day after Mr Maliki was interviewed, the Kurdish Prime Minister Barham Saleh was quoted as saying that “all contracts” signed by the KRG received…