Chinese-led group initials deal for Iraq oil field

AFP via Yahoo! News ^ | December 22, 2009

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A consortium led by China's top oil producer initialled a deal with Iraq on Tuesday to develop the southern Halfaya oil field, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP.

"Yes, they signed the contract today," he said of the group made up of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and which also includes France's Total and Malaysia's Petronas.

The three companies are aiming to increase production at Halfaya, which has proven reserves of 4.098 billion barrels of oil, to 535,000 barrels per day (bpd).

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[theBuckwheat]

Because oil is fungible, not much weight should be given to the fact that the Chinese have signed this deal. If anyone doubts this, just recall the experience of OPEC when it tried to enforce a seller's boycott of the US (twice) in the 1970s.

[edcoil]

Does this include to the wells Iran is taking from Iraq.