1 May 2003 US plans to set up an advisory board to oversee Iraq’s oil sector are taking shape. Fadhil Othman, a retired Iraqi oil marketing official now living in Turkey, is understood to have accepted Washington’s request that he serve as deputy head of the oil advisory board, a non-executive body. In view of Othman’s past experience as head of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (Somo), he “could be…
Tag: Opec
Early Power Play Points to Iraq Challenges
22 April 2003 Intriguing power plays erupting in postwar Iraq underline the conundrum faced by Opec when it meets later this week to plot out a production strategy that ministers hope will stave off a price collapse before the group has to make room for Iraqi oil exports. But further delays to the establishment of an interim Iraqi administration to oversee the short-term rehabilitation of the country’s oil sector could…
Iraq Aims to Hike Capacity by End-2003, Despite Sanctions
10 July 2002 Iraq is aiming to increase its sustainable oil production capacity to 3.5 million barrels per day by the end of 2003, without help from foreign oil companies and assuming that UN sanctions remain in force for the foreseeable future, Iraqi oil ministry sources say. Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Rashid recently put current sustainable production capacity at 3.2 million-3.3 million b/d, although other estimates are lower. Under a…
Iraq-Opec: Charm Offensive
11 February 2000 Iraq’s decade of non-participation in Opec may be coming to an end. The pariah state – which plans to produce 6 million barrels per day within 10 years of United Nations sanctions against it being lifted – has indicated that it intends to reassert itself as a fully functioning member of the organization. Iraq’s approach is two-pronged. It wants an Iraqi official installed in high office in…