Head Named for New Oil Firm in Southern Iraq

11 September 2008 Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has named Ali Muarij, a petroleum engineer from southern Iraq, director-general of Missan Oil Co. (MOC), the first regional operating company to be set up since Iraq National Oil Co. was dismantled in 1987, Iraqi sources told International Oil Daily from Baghdad Wednesday. The cabinet in June approved the creation of MOC to operate all oil fields in Missan province in southern…

Iraq Buys Favor With China on Al-Ahdab

27 March 2007 The Iraqi government decided to renegotiate an old production sharing contract which had been signed by China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to develop the 90,000 barrel per day Al-Ahdab oil field with the former Iraqi regime “for political and legal reasons” rather than retender, a senior Iraqi government official told International Oil Daily late last week. CNPC officials traveled to Baghdad earlier this month for a first…

Baghdad’s Oil Priorities

1 June 2007 Iraq has missed a May 31 deadline to approve the country’s first hydrocarbon law since regime change in 2003 — but in Iraqi terms, that’s no big deal. Every other deadline pushed by the US administration in the past four years for rebuilding the country’s institutions has also been missed. But for Iraq’s dilapidated oil sector, the delay is pushing back some initiatives that could provide a…