Mission Accomplished For Real This Time!!

[Etta Place]

Yup, once the Anglo-American oil consortium is ruling the roost again in Iraq, then our troops can come home! Wait! No, then they'll have to stay there 100 years to guard the place so nobody gets any ideas about nationalizing the oil business in Iraq ever again!!

Iraq throws open door to foreign oil firms
By Ahmed Rasheed
13 minutes ago



Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.

The move to invite bids for the development of Iraq's largest producing fields should mark the return of the oil majors, whose cash and expertise Iraq needs to restore its oil infrastructure that has been hard hit by sanctions and war.

But any awards to U.S. and British firms could anger opponents of the invasion, who have said the 2003 war was designed to give Western oil companies control over Iraqi oil reserves. U.S. and British officials have denied the charges.

By allowing international firms to help raise output at its key producing oil fields, the Iraqi government is breaking with the policy of major oil-producing neighbors such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates where national firms keep tight control of foreign investment in their oil sectors.

"The six oilfields that have been announced today are the backbone of Iraq's oil production," Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told a news conference.

"With its massive proven reserves, Iraq should not stay at its current level of production. Iraq should be the second or third largest oil-producing country."

Shahristani listed the fields as Rumaila, Kirkuk, Zubair, West Qurna Phase 1, Bai Hassan and Maysan -- which comprises three separate fields: Bazargan, Abu Gharab and Fakka.

The Oil Ministry said they were open for long-term development contracts. Iraqi has prequalified 41 foreign firms.

Shahristani said he hoped contracts could be signed in June 2009 to raise output by a combined 1.5 million barrels per day at those fields. He added that Iraq aimed to raise output to 4.5 million bpd by 2013 from the current 2.5 million bpd.

He said any firm that wanted to bid must open an office in Baghdad. Currently, few foreign companies have any presence in Iraq because of the security situation.

Julian Lee, senior energy analyst at London's Centre for Global Energy Studies, said Iraq was a bit like Russia in the early to mid 1990s.

"No matter how risky you think it is, as an individual company you can't afford to be the only major international player that isn't interested," he said.

FRUSTRATION OVER SHORT-TERM DEALS

Iraq said last week it also hoped to sign six short-term oil technical support contracts during the next month.

But Shahristani, showing frustration, said talks on deals that were supposed to quickly boost output at fields by utilizing the technical expertise of majors were still going on.

He said the firms were reluctant to sign the technical support contracts because they would offer their advice from abroad and preferred to be hands on with the fields.

"We are losing time," Shahristani added.

Taken together, the short-term and long-term contracts should open the door to major foreign involvement in the OPEC member's oil sector for the first time in nearly four decades.

Iraq's proven reserves, at 115 billion barrels, are the world's largest after Saudi Arabia and Iran. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said in April that as yet unproven reserves could make the total as much as 350 billion barrels.

The short-term technical deals, each worth about $500 million, are aimed at lifting output at Iraq's largest producing fields by a combined 500,000 barrels a day.

Five of the short-term deals that have been under discussion are with Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L); Shell in partnership with BHP Billiton (BHP.AX); BP (BP.L); Exxon Mobil (XOM.N); and Chevron (CVX.N) in partnership with Total (TOTF.PA).

Iraq has also been in talks with a consortium of Anadarko (APC.N), Vitol and Dome for a sixth short-term contract.

Those talks on the short-term deals should give the majors concerned a head start in efforts to bid for future contracts, although Shahristani said no company would get any "privilege" in bidding for the fields announced on Monday.

RESENTMENT

Many Iraqis still bear a grudge after British, American and French oil companies controlled their oil industry for half a century through the Iraq Petroleum Co (IPC).

It was an era when Western majors working in the Middle East used oil output and prices as an economic and political tool, analysts said.

From the time it struck oil at the huge Kirkuk field in 1927 until nationalism forced it out in 1972, IPC -- made up of BP, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, CFP (Total) and Partex -- ruled the roost. That did not go well with Baghdad, which resented IPC's control.

Oil is Iraq's main source of income, and boosting output is key to earning the cash the country needs for reconstruction.

Iraq's cabinet agreed a new draft national oil law in February last year, but it has failed to get through parliament.

Baghdad has moved ahead with the contracts, saying this was in line with an old law in existence before the invasion.

Iraq throws open door to foreign oil firms - Yahoo! News

[Frenchy]

If they drill enough holes, they might find those pesky WMD's...

[AZXD]

That would change the argument

Originally Posted by Frenchy

If they drill enough holes, they might find those pesky WMD's...

[Green Man]

Privatizing Iraqi oil fields: Mission Accomplished

[JeffXD]

Well you can relax...

All that evil oil isn't going to be in the hands of the evil U.S. oil companies today.

"We did not finalise any agreement with them because they refused to offer consultancy based on fees as they wanted a share of the oil," he said.

Iraq fails to ink deals with global oil majors

[Frenchy]

Originally Posted by JeffXD

Well you can relax...

All that evil oil isn't going to be in the hands of the evil U.S. oil companies today.



Iraq fails to ink deals with global oil majors

Here's the complete article.

Iraq said on Monday that it had failed to sign technical support deals with global oil majors hoping to cash in on boosting the war-torn country's extensive but underexploited oilfields.

Iraq is still negotiating with Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total, and a consortium of other smaller oil companies, to develop six oil blocks and two gas fields, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told a press briefing.
"We did not finalise any agreement with them because they refused to offer consultancy based on fees as they wanted a share of the oil," he said.
"The TSAs (technical support agreements) are only simple consultancy contracts to help us raise the production during the interim period" before the ministry enters into long-term contracts to develop the oil and gas fields.
The widely expected arrangement was to pave the way for global energy giants to return to Iraq 36 years after Saddam Hussein threw them out, and was seen as a first step to access the earth's third largest proven crude reserves.

Last week, oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told AFP that it would sign
the support contracts on Monday and award longer-term deals to 41 other energy companies.
"We chose 35 companies of international standard, according to their finances, environment and experience, and we granted them permission to extract oil," Jihad said.
Six other state-owned oil firms from Algeria, Angola, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam have also been selected to compete for extraction deals.
Iraq wants to ramp up output by 500,000 barrels per day from the current average production of 2.5 million bpd, about equal to the amount being pumped before the US-led invasion in March 2003.
However, political infighting over how oil revenues should be shared has slowed the process.
Crucially, the passing of the hydrocarbon law that aims to govern profit-sharing as well as foreign agreements has yet to be passed by the nation's parliament.
Exports of 2.11 million bpd currently form the bulk of the war-torn nation's revenues, and the oil ministry is keen to raise capacity over the next five years to 4.5 million bpd.
Iraq has crude reserves estimated at 115 billion barrels but it is sorely lacking in high-tech infrastructure following years of crippling UN sanctions after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein.
Shahristani stressed that Iraq needed the services of experienced companies to realise the potential of its huge crude reserves but added that it was not ready to do so at any price.
"It is not possible for Iraq which has large oil reserves to stay at the current level of production. Iraq should be the second or the third source of oil exportation," the minister said.
"We went to these global companies and asked them to offer us consultancy but they will have no privileges or will not get a share of oil."
Shahristani said his ministry had invited tenders from the 41 selected foreign firms to enter into long-term services agreements for which the contracts would be signed next year.
The companies have been told to present their offers by April 2009, he said, adding the deals would be signed later in June.
"It is a service contract and not a production-sharing contract," the minister said.
Shahristani said Iraq would not enter into production-sharing contracts with any energy major, while service arrangements for overseas firms would require locals partners.
"We think there is no need to share Iraq's oil with anybody," the minister said, adding the final offers of the companies would have to be approved by the cabinet.
Those companies that offered higher revenues for the ministry would be preferred in awarding the services contracts, Shahristani said.

Stay tuned........

[XDConvert9mm]

Originally Posted by Green Man

Privatizing Iraqi oil fields: Mission Accomplished

[Dhunter55]

Originally Posted by Etta Place

Yup, once the Anglo-American oil consortium is ruling the roost again in Iraq, then our troops can come home! Wait! No, then they'll have to stay there 100 years to guard the place so nobody gets any ideas about nationalizing the oil business in Iraq ever again!!

We'll need the troops here so Maxine Waters can nationalize America's oilfields.

[DanTheEldest]

Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.

I'll say it.....COOL. Since the libs and greenies here have decided it's a sin to use our own domestic petroleum, we've got to get it from somewhere. Iraq's as good a place as any.....why go a few miles off our coast to get what we can go halfway around the world for at a higher price?

[JeffXD]

Originally Posted by Frenchy

Here's the complete article.



Stay tuned........

I said it didn't happen TODAY. I hope it does though. I had rather it be a U.S. interest that one of the other countries, Algeria, Angola, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, that are also in the running for a piece of the pie.