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…
Tag: KRG
Iraq: New Models
14 March 2008 After struggling for five years to restore crude oil production to prewar levels, Baghdad is taking a pragmatic look at ways to involve international oil companies in developing its resources, sidestepping an internal debate over whether production sharing agreements (PSA) — the model preferred by Big Oil — are suited to Iraq. While discussions are ongoing with international oil companies, and between the Iraqi oil ministry and…
Buying Time
29 September 2006 It will be 2008, at the earliest, before Iraq’s southern provinces unite to form the giant oil-rich federal region that some Iraqi groups are calling for. That’s the deal reached this week by Shiite and Sunni lawmakers which, for now at least, averts further ethnic and religious strife over a Shiite-backed law outlining the mechanisms whereby Iraq’s provinces can form autonomous regions. But the arrangement, brokered by…
Kurdish-Iraqi Oil Minister Spat Escalates
1 May 2007 A war of words between Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani and Kurdish Energy Minister Ashti Hawrami over who has the authority to sign contracts with foreign companies, and over the extent of the proposed new Iraqi national oil company’s control over the country’s oil fields, is threatening to derail the draft oil law approved by the Iraqi cabinet in February. Al-Shahristani last week warned foreign companies that…