- Title: RUSSIA: Iraq hopes to call open race for its oil in September
- Date: 9th August 2007
- Summary: SHAHRISTANI LEAVING BUILDING AFTER TALKS WITH RUSSIAN ENERGY MINISTER VIKTOR KHRISTENKO IRAQI EMBASSY CAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) IRAQI OIL MINISTER HUSSAIN AL-SHAHRISTANI, SAYING: "There will be no talks with any specific company about any particular field. What will happen is that Iraq will announce the development of a certain field, and all qualified oil companies can c
- Embargoed: 24th August 2007 13:00
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- Topics: International Relations,Energy
- Reuters ID: LVA77S8N1URGF3NZE9SI2DH7FCJR
- Story Text: Iraq's oil minister says there will be an open race for future oil deals, with the federal government in Baghdad having the final say in the award of new oil exploration and development contracts.
Iraq hopes to call an open race as early as September for its prized oilfields, its oil minister said on Thursday (August 9) after talks in Moscow dashed Russian hopes of getting a slice of oil reserves on preferential terms.
Hussain al-Shahristani told Reuters he hoped parliament would pass the key new oil legislation after the holidays, opening the way for tenders for specific fields.
"There will be no talks with any specific company about any particular field. What will happen is that Iraq will announce the development of a certain field, and all qualified oil companies can come along and compete, and whoever makes the best offer to Iraq, and provides the highest return for Iraq will be selected. So it is not talking to certain companies about certain fields," said al-Shahristani.
He also said that all 27 producing fields in Iraq will be transferred to the national oil company, which will be free to decide whether it wants to have partners or not.
Russian oil major LUKOIL had hoped to revive a $4 billion Saddam-era deal to develop West Qurna, but the minister said the issue was not specifically raised at his meeting with Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko.
The meeting lasted for two hours and LUKOIL's top executives attended.
Russia did not support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, prompting analysts to speculate that its chances of reviving old deals were slim.
Some analysts have however said U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips, which holds 20 percent in LUKOIL, could help the Russian company revive the contract.
Shahristani said he could not understand why the deal should be revived, especially after it was scrapped in the late days of Saddam's government on the grounds that LUKOIL has done nothing to launch the fields since 1997.
Asked about Iraq's new oil legislation, al-Shahristani said he expected parliament to approve the proposed legislation into law. He added that the federal government in Baghdad would be the only authority to approve future oil contracts.
"The government, the federal government would not lose control.
Any contract in any part of Iraq has to be authorised by the federal council for oil and gas, which is headed by the prime minister of Iraq, and the membership is a number of ministries - minister of oil, minister of finance, minister of planning, governor of the central bank - and any contract that is not authorised by the federal council is not legal contract in Iraq,"
al-Shahristani said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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