News and Analysis
Iraq set to sign oil deals
Iraq's Oil Ministry will finalise deals later this month with foreign energy outfits for its Majnoon, Gharaf, Qayara and Najmah fields
January 11, 2010: Sabah Abdul Kadhim, the head of the legal section of Iraq's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, said the ministry would sign a final service contract for super giant Majnoon,(awarded to Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas in a December energy auction), on January 17. Majnoon's reserves are a whopping 12.6 billion barrels, making it one of the world's largest untapped fields.
On 18 January, the ministry will sign a deal for smaller field Gharaf, with reserves of 900 million barrels, with Petronas and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co (Japex). On 26 January, it will sign with Angola's Sonangol for northern Qayara and Najmah fields. The deals for the four fields, awarded at an auction held on December 11 to 12, were ratified by Iraq's Cabinet early this month, and now require the final signature of oil officials and foreign consortia before work can begin.
The deals could go a long way in transforming Iraq's underperforming oil sector and bringing output capacity to an eventual 12 million barrels per day (bpd), Reuters reported. That jump would bring Iraq a flood of oil cash that is desperately needed to rebuild public works damaged by decades of war, create jobs, and lay the groundwork for economic stability