18 January 2008 Iraq’s launch last week of a prequalification process for international oil companies ahead of a tender for undeveloped fields has drawn fire from smaller firms, which say the criteria and requirements set by the oil ministry exclude them from the competition and favor their bigger brethren, especially the majors. Oil ministry sources said the prequalification process is designed to determine “which companies could be called on to…
Category: 2008
A historical
Iraq Punishes Oil Firms With KRG Deals
16 January 2008 Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has followed up on threats to punish companies that sign deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) by canceling the memoranda of understanding (MOU) some had inked with his ministry, a ministry source told International Oil Daily from Baghdad Tuesday. This is the first concrete step toward depriving them of any future deals with Baghdad. Al-Shahristani had persistently told companies that Baghdad…
Sunnis, Shiites Ink Fragile Pact Against Kurds
15 January 2008 Sunni, Shiite and independent lawmakers came together in Baghdad Sunday to sign a pact that, for the first time, issued a collective Sunni-Shiite demand for central control over oil resources and criticized the Kurds for their go-it-alone stance in signing oil deals. Signatories to the statement of common understanding included the political wing of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the secular Iraqi National List of former Prime…
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…