The Real Winners

In retrospect, and despite what was considered at the time a ridiculously low fee, producing oil fields awarded to international oil companies in the first bid round turned out to be the most lucrative in terms of the service fee they will be paid. That’s excluding the three fields that will be producing less than 200,000 b/d (see table below). Even with the protracted negotiations over amendments to the final producing…

2nd Bid Round Results

In response to Mr. I Chalabi’s comments, with all due respect I disagree with his remarks for the following reasons: There is certainly warranted rush to award all the fields included in both rounds, and more to come; a wider perspective on the role of oil in Iraq’s future is being lost. After years of misrule and total bad management coupled with the effects of sanctions, and the post-2003 violence,…