Pipelines Politics

Is Iraq’s foreign policy at the regional and international levels dictated by its position as an oil producer and exporter or is Iraq managing its resources in function of what its alliances and relationships allows it to do? Judging by the past, oil has mostly been a victim of the politics of the regime. This does not only apply to the last one, but goes back as far as the…

The Day After

The long-awaited party is over and now the real work is about to start. This is when the winners start going over the nitty-gritty of the model contract to try and tie loose ends in a bid to pull the extra mile out of a service contract. But at the end of the day, a service contract is a service contract. There is only so much one can adjust and…

Iraq Watch – Confused Priorities

26 September 2008 A second bid round for Iraq’s upstream sector, currently being prepared by the oil ministry, promises to transform the country’s oil industry. If all goes to plan, a second set of oil and gas fields would be awarded by the end of next year, hard on the heels of the first eight fields announced this summer — and the Iraqi oil industry will be bustling. That’s good…