The chairman of the oil and energy committee in the Iraqi parliament, Adnan al-Janabi, spells out his plans to speed up the legislation of the pending oil sector laws and the role of his committee in resolving the conflict between the KRG and the federal government, in an interview with Ruba Husari in his office in Baghdad Feb.19. Q: What role do you see for the oil and energy committee…
18 July 2008 Feeling buoyant about beating back Al-Qaeda in Iraq and reining in Iraqi militias in southern Iraq and Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is now taking the initiative on the economic and diplomatic fronts. He wants to spur the much-delayed reconstruction efforts, including those in the oil sector, by moving the decision-making process from bureaucratic ministries to a new council with powers to award contracts. He also…
Q. The Iraqi government took several decisions to proceed with the development of Iraq’s oil resources and to invite international oil companies to help develop oil fields, but no contracts have been awarded to date. Why is that?
A. There is more than one reason for the delays but the most important one is the lack of security that has been prevailing until recently. The security situation was not conducive to our own companies, let alone international companies, playing a role in development. This also applies to companies in other sectors related to the reconstruction of Iraq. This was normal at a time when Al-Qaeda and those who supported it created a situation where no one could enter Iraq, which meant that we could not achieve our goals in the oil and non-oil sectors. But we see more interest now from foreign companies following successes by the government in enforcing security and stability. All those companies that hesitated to come are now competing for the different oil contracts. And although we are happy with the licensing round announced recently and the interest expressed by international oil companies in competing for those contracts, we have decided in the council of ministers [this week] that we need to speed up the process and reduce the complications of the contracting process.
