5 March 2008 The Iraqi cabinet has given the oil ministry the go-ahead to sign technical support contracts to develop five producing fields with five of the world’s top oil firms, Iraqi sources told International Oil Daily Tuesday. The companies — BP, Chevron with partner Total, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell — have now been invited to a new round of talks in Amman, Jordan, starting on Mar. 14….
Tag: Rumaila
Minnows Complain as Majors Meet on Iraq
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…
Iraq: Paralysis At The Top
8 August 2008 More than nine months after they were first launched, Iraq’s technical support contracts (TSC) — the first commercial agreements with Big Oil since nationalization in the 1970s — are in limbo. The official view from Baghdad is that the short-term deals are losing their relevance due to protracted negotiations and the possibility that they will overlap with the award of long-term service contracts under the recently launched…
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…