A History of Waste

Iraq is struggling between the urge to become a regional – and eventually an international – player on the gas scene and the need to supply a domestic market whose demand for gas for power generation is expected to continue rising drastically. That urge is exacerbated by the KRG’s ability to conclude swift deals to export gas regardless of whether such deals – which, like exporting oil, would require state to state agreements to export gas via Turkey – will materialise or not.

The Iraqi oil ministry has dropped the option to export oil it had offered to international oil companies bidding in its third bid round to develop three gas fields, after realising that that option is unrealistic in view…

3rd Licensing Round . Akkas . bid round . gas consumption . gas contracts . gas exports . gas fields . gas flaring . gas map . gas production . KRG . Mansouriyah . oil ministry . oil production . power generation . power plants . RWE . Shell . Siba . Somo The View from Baghdad

Breaking The Oil Curse

For the first time the Iraqi federal budget for 2010 legislated Jan.26 includes allocations that will see the wealth redistributed among regions and governorates in a bid to make those who produce the oil benefit from it directly, while at the same time compensate them for the environmental damage suffered as a result of the oil and gas operations. That must be a first in the history of Iraq as an oil producing nation.

According to Article 43 of the 2010 budget law, the finance minister will transfer to the concerned governorates $1 for each barrel produced or refined and the same amount for each 150 cubic meters of gas produced in that governorate.

That means that Iraq’s biggest southern city of…

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2010 budget . 2nd bid round . Basrah . federal budget . gas production . governorates . IOCs . Iran . Kuwait . local councils . LPG . Majnoon . oil production . refnineries . Rumaila . West Qurna . Zubair The View from Baghdad

$0.5 per barrel for the producing provinces: An equitable share or additional revenue?

In its 21st ordinary meeting held on 9th June 2009 the Council of Ministers-CoM in Iraq decided to propose a draft law which provide every producing province (Governorate) a 50 cent for every barrel of oil produced by it. The decision was said to be a fulfilment of Article 121 sub-paragraph “Three” of the Constitution regarding equitable revenue sharing.

Apart from this brief note the CoM website provides no further information on the draft of the proposed law, when it will be sent to Parliament, and if this proposal has anything to do with current moves and deliberations around the Federal Oil and Gas Law-FOGL in Parliament, or the forthcoming joint conference on Oil and Gas Law and Water Problem to…

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bid rounds . council of ministers . federal oil and gas law . gas fields . hydrocarbon law . oil fields . oil production . provinces . revenue sharing The Forum

Iraq: Debating the Model

5 September 2008

Since launching its first postwar licensing round in late June, Iraq’s leadership has been struggling to reach a consensus on what commercial terms would best protect long-term national interests while offering quick and efficient solutions for an oil industry worn down by years of war, sanctions and scant resources. The main issue arising from the internal debate is who should operate oil fields — the national oil company or foreign contractors — and how they should divide interests in any partnership.

When it comes to operating Iraq’s oil fields — whether those now being offered under long-term service contracts or other fields in future tenders — the subject becomes politically loaded and highly sensitive. Some Iraqis, at home and…

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1st bid round . contractors . hydrocarbon law . INOC . IOC . Kirkuk . model contract . NOC . non-operator . oil production . operator . rehabilitation . Rumaila . SOC . tender . upstream 2008