Pioneer CNPC

Wasit Province – About 2,000 Chinese workers are about to descend on Al-Ahdab oil field next month to start work on the construction of the central production facility, engineer Ahmad Abdul Redha, the chief of Al-Ahdab section at North Oil Co (NOC) tells me during a tour of the fortress camp that CNPC’s subsidiary, Al-Waha Petroleum, built just 15 km to the west of Kut. With five rigs on the…

Baghdad, Kurds Quarrel Over Oil Claims

29  September 2006 Officials in Baghdad and the northern Kurdish government locked horns this week over the Kurds’ claimed right to award production sharing contracts to foreign oil companies. The spat prompted a Kurdish threat to break away from Iraq, in a development that bodes ill for the country’s future unity. The quarrel centered on whether the Iraqi oil ministry in Baghdad should have a say in how — and…