ONGC, Pertamina Renegotiate Iraqi Deals

25 April 2008 India’s state Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and Indonesia’s Pertamina recently opened talks with Iraq’s oil ministry about renegotiating exploration contracts signed with the Baath regime before the war in 2003, Iraqi officials told International Oil Daily Thursday. The two companies met with Iraqi ministry officials in Amman last week to adapt the deals to the new model contracts — called Service Exploration and Production Contracts…

Iraq: China’s Breakthrough

29 August 2008 China this week became the first country since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein to clinch an oil deal with Iraq, by reviving the first of a series of contracts signed by the previous Iraqi regime under new terms dictated by new realities. The service contract for development of the Al-Ahdab field, which includes a mix of old production sharing elements and new service contract terms, sets a…

Iraq: Splits Dog Oil Law

9 March 2007 Having waited so long for a law offering the framework necessary to regularize and legitimize future investments in Iraq’s vast oil resources, international firms itching to get their hands on the biggest Mideast opportunity in decades now find consensus — perhaps the most important ingredient of all — lacking. Iraqis are divided over the legitimacy of signing contracts while the country is wracked by chaos, and some…

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…