Mr. Five Percent

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 –…

The Accelerated Program: A Delayed Start With Hurdles!

The interview with Mr Jabbar Al-Luaibi provides serious and damaging revelations, and could implicate top management of the Ministry of Oil-MoO on grounds of negligence, incompetence, loss of potential oil revenues and production capacity etc. The seriousness of the provided counts of events and matters calls for an independent investigation, and could very well be incorporated in the possible forthcoming questioning of the minister of oil before the Parliament. Since…

Legal Pros and Cons

30 March 2007 Iraqi oil veterans have made no bones about their unhappiness with the petroleum law approved by the cabinet in February. Not only do they criticize the speed at which it could open the upstream doors to major oil companies and the extent of Big Oil’s potential involvement, they say it’s wrong to be deciding the fate of the industry at a time when the state is struggling…