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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 23:40 GMT | more >>

Iraq quick deals in slow progress


News wires

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has told lawmakers that short-term technical support contracts with oil majors worth around $3 billion may not get signed, according to two parliamentarians.

The lawmakers, the two top officials on parliament's oil and gas committee, told Reuters that Shahristani was unhappy with delays in getting the contracts agreed.

One sticking point was payment terms, they said.

The six no-bid contracts are worth about $500 million each and are intended to quickly raise Iraq's oil output by a combined 500,000 barrels per day.

"The oil companies are not enthusiastic about signing the contracts and there is a big possibility we will not sign them," Ali Hussain Balou, head of the committee, quoted Shahristani as telling the committee in a closed-door meeting yesterday.

Shell, Shell in partnership with BHP Billiton, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron in partnership with Total, are the key Western companies negotiating for the no bid contracts.

The deals are separate from long-term development contracts that dozens of foreign energy companies are expected to bid for on the country's largest producing oilfields.

Shahristani unveiled those fields and outlined bidding terms on Monday.

Before he met with the oil and gas committee, Shahristani told Reuters at parliament that the short-term technical support contracts were supposed to act as bridging deals to raise production before Iraq put its giant fields out to tender.

"These technical support agreements were meant to be signed at the start of the year. We have already lost six months," Shahristani said.

Asked if Iraq was close to signing the deals, he said: "We don't know, as long as talks are continuing."


Thursday, 03 July, 2008, 09:59 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 03 July, 2008, 10:03 GMT

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