Posted on 04/16/2008 8:59:23 AM PDT by BGHater
Iraq's Oil Ministry has approved 35 companies it will allow to bid for soon-to-be announced tenders to develop oil and gas fields.
The largest oil companies in the world -- ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Conoco Phillips, Chevron -- all qualified, as did firms of a variety of sizes and nationalities.
The announcement Monday on the ministry's Web site is a major move that could bring foreign oil companies en masse into Iraq since the third-largest oil sector in the world was nationalized three decades ago.
It takes place as the ministry attempts to increase oil and gas production as a new law to govern the sector remains in dispute between the central and Kurdistan regional governments.
The announcement said of the 120 companies or consortia that applied, 35 met the minimum criteria and "can then participate in the coming Licensing Round for planned Oil and Gas Fields which will be announced in due time when they will receive a Letter of Invitation from Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate to this effect."
Those that didn't qualify this time will be able to update their applications for future bidding rounds.
Iraq's Oil Ministry will not unveil the list of oil and gas fields that will be put to tender. Iraq wants to increase production from the current 2.4 million barrels per day to 6 million bpd in the short term. Its plan is to increase production of currently flowing fields and develop those fields discovered but not producing. There is not expected to be any exploration blocks included in the tender.
The Kurdistan Regional Government interprets the constitution as a mechanism to decentralize the oil sector, allowing provinces and regions producing oil some level of autonomy, while many in government believe the central government should hold the oil strategy portfolio.
The KRG passed its own oil law and has signed dozens of exploration and production deals with foreign oil firms. None of the companies that signed with the Kurds qualified for the ministry's bidding round -- though many didn't bother to apply -- as Baghdad made good on its promise to blacklist those firms.
Qualifying Firms (alphabetical by country):
-- Australia: BHP Billiton; Woodside.
-- British: BG International; BP; Premier.
-- Canada: Nexen.
-- China: CNOOC; CNPC; Sinochem; Sinopec.
-- Denmark: Maersk.
-- France: Total.
-- Germany: Wintershall BASF Group.
-- India: ONGC.
-- Indonesia: Pertamina.
-- Italy: Edison; ENI.
-- Japan: Inpex; Japex; Mitsubishi Corp.; Nippon.
-- Korea: Kogas.
-- Malaysia: Petronas.
-- Netherlands: Shell.
-- Norway: StatoilHydro.
-- Russia: Gazprom; Lukoil.
-- Spain: Repsol.
-- United States: Anadarko; Chevron; Conoco Phillips; ExxonMobil; Hess Corp.; Marathon; Occidental Petroleum.
Ah the sweet sounds of Rconciliation and the tired Democrats so out of touch with the reality on the ground in Iraq... Obama is so out of touch.... where is the honesty...
This is excellent news. This should help get things back on track in a major way.
It could be as large as the Sunni tribal cheifs coming around.
Hope that short term is SOON!
Damn.. whichever oil company it is that “bought” Bush and Cheney ought to ask for their money back! They have to deal with 34 competitors?! That couldn’t have been part of the deal!
Why, lookee here. That would be the O&G company that the Algore family is heavily invested in.
Interesting, no Iranian companies.
Well, China makes up for that. Pathetic.
No Citgo?
Yea, that one wasn’t good but since oil is fungible even if China gets a chunk it frees up more on the world stage. More incentive for them to try and calm their Iranian partners down.
No Citgo?
Venezuela, like Iraq is now, had foreign companies develop their fields for a share in the profits.
After the fields were developed, they nationalized them, and paid those that developed them far below market value.
Now their fields are slowly producing less and less, because they are not or don't have the capability to maintain them properly.
Hopefully a sizeable amount of Iraqis can get jobs out of this deal. I know a Shia man and his family—he came here and got an engineering degree from a school here in NYC called Cooper Union. He wants to go back eventually (whole family is there and they’re kind of dependent on him for support). Employment will make a large difference in that society——as in any. If you’re employed, chances are you’re less inclined to be screaming in the streets “Death to America”
Any Democrat elected would insist on taking credit for the subsequent drop in oil prices. The media will propagandize 24/7. John Q I hate Bush will believe it and insist that President Bush kept the price artificially high in order to profit his oil buddies...because NOBODY wants to believe the president can't do ANYTHING about oil prices except to free oil producing nations from tyranny and dump the US oil reserves on the open market, thus artificially lowering prices for a short period before the election, thn blame the subsequent hike in heating oil prices over the winter in the incoming president...as Clinton did for Algore in the summer of 2000.
Let's see the oil prices drop first, and then I don't give a damn who claims credit for it.
That is, Bill Clinton didn’t free NAY nations from tyranny, but he DID dump the US oil reserves on the open market so Al could say that if you elect Bush heating oil prices will rise so he can profit his oil buddies
I also hope no Communist country is a winner.
I do. The public HAS to stop believing that the president can legally do much about oil prices. Treaties and freeing countries like Iraq so they become strong allies instead of enemies, which are good, and dumping the reserves, which is bad. And THEN the public needs to flipping learn about ethanol production and stop thinking it’ll solve all of our problems.
s/b SAY
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