Speaking out: Hussain Shahristani
Baghdad rethink over 'no-bid' deals
Iraq may not award the so-called "no- bid" contracts that are being negotiated with companies including US supermajor ExxonMobil, because they risk interfering with this year's oil bidding round, Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani said.
The technical service contracts that Iraq's Oil Ministry is negotiating with ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, and Total will have to become void once contracts from the bid round are awarded, Shahristani told International Oil Daily.
Iraq has pre-qualified 35 companies to bid to help boost production from eight oil and gas fields in the country's first licensing round since the US-led invasion in 2003. The country plans to present data on the fields in London at the end of September and award contracts by June 2009, Shahristani said.
The separate no-bid contracts can still be signed if the companies involved submit new proposals that will last for one year rather than the original two years so that they do not overlap with the bid round awards, Shahristani said, adding that Iraq is yet to receive proposals from the oil players concerned.