I was privileged two years ago to be invited, as an observer, to attend a roundtable in Paris where about 30 Iraqis from inside and outside of Iraq, with experience in government and the oil sector, convened over three days to discuss in a candid and open manner how to define an oil policy for Iraq. To my surprise – and the shock of everyone else in the room –…
Tag: Kurdistan
Iraq Punishes Oil Firms With KRG Deals
16 January 2008 Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has followed up on threats to punish companies that sign deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) by canceling the memoranda of understanding (MOU) some had inked with his ministry, a ministry source told International Oil Daily from Baghdad Tuesday. This is the first concrete step toward depriving them of any future deals with Baghdad. Al-Shahristani had persistently told companies that Baghdad…
Sunnis, Shiites Ink Fragile Pact Against Kurds
15 January 2008 Sunni, Shiite and independent lawmakers came together in Baghdad Sunday to sign a pact that, for the first time, issued a collective Sunni-Shiite demand for central control over oil resources and criticized the Kurds for their go-it-alone stance in signing oil deals. Signatories to the statement of common understanding included the political wing of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the secular Iraqi National List of former Prime…
BP Wants Stability, Oil, Contract Laws, Before Entering Iraq
23 March 2007 UK supermajor BP is staying away from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, to avoid antagonizing the central government in Baghdad. However, despite the Iraqi government’s recent approval of a draft hydrocarbon law, BP will not venture into the country until there is a rule of law and it can be sure that contracts signed with the existing authorities would survive political change, a senior company executive said. “Every…