2nd Bid Round Results

There was certainly an unwarranted rush by the government to award all the fields included in both rounds totalling 27 although they could not get offers for some of the smaller ones and the reasons for Kirkuk and Bai Hassan are more related to Kurdish objections than anything else..
I do not attribute that to the wish of Maliky to gain popular support for the elections as the absolute majority of Iraqis are unaware of the implications and pay more attentions to necessaties of life. If any, many Iraqis resent the return of foreign oil companies. I will not rule out other reasons for pushing such awards and it will take a much larger space and time to argue..

To me all…

2nd bid round . Chalabi . Law 97 . Maliki . results The Forum

A Mis-match of Infrastructure?

Issam al-Chalabi writes:

“Iraq is a landlocked country with a narrow opening to the Gulf. That by itself has been the cause of many conflicts with neighbouring Iran and Kuwait, meaning that, in addition to utilizing its Gulf outlet, Iraq must send oil through other neighboring countries to provide additional and alternative export outlets. This again has been a source of political conflicts and confrontations ever since the commercial discovery of oil in Baba Gurgur in Kirkuk in 1927, when there were differences between the French and the British as to whether the terminal IPC was planning should be in Haifa in Palestine (under British mandate) or Banias in Syria (under French mandate).

The current stampede by the government of Prime Minister…

1st bid round . 2nd bid round . exports . Maliki . pipelines . Shahristani . terminals The Forum

Iraq Watch – Zero-Sum Game

6 February 2009

Collapsing oil prices and dwindling revenues are forcing Iraq’s oil ministry to review the terms of the first bid round it launched last summer. After all, the state entity might not be able to finance a 51% carried interest in each of the six oil fields as stipulated in the bid round’s tender protocol and draft model contract. As a result, companies meeting ministry officials at a technical workshop in Istanbul Feb 12-14 might hear news that is music to their ears; a reduction of the state partner’s equity in the oil fields projects to 25%-30%. At least that is the thinking in Baghdad at the moment.

If formalized, this change would have other significant implications, especially on the…

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1st bid round . Baghdad conference . Barham Salih . Big Oil . co-operator . contract terms . IOCs . Iraq parliament . istanbul . Maliki . model contract . oil ministry . operator . privatization . state partnership 2009

Oil Provinces Offer High Stakes in Iraqi Poll

30 January 2009

Iraqis go to the polls on Saturday to choose their local council representatives for the next four years, in the second such elections held in postwar Iraq. The outcome will reflect the balance of power between the major political parties across 14 of the country’s 18 provinces and give an indication of the shape of things to come as Iraq prepares for its next parliamentary elections, most likely in early 2010.

Unlike the 2005 provincial council elections — which were boycotted by Sunnis — the 440 seats up for grabs this time are being contested by over 14,000 candidates representing Sunni, Shiite and secular parties, as well as independents. Sunni parties are going head to head in north and…

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Basrah . Dhi Qar . election . gas deal . governorates . ISCI . local councils . Maliki . Missan . oil deals . provinces . Shell . shiites . southern region . sunnis 2009