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Kurdistan Government to sign deals with at
least 10 foreign oil companies
23.3.2007 |
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Iraq's
Kurdistan regional government expects to sign deals
with at least 10 foreign oil companies by the end of
the year, it said today, as it strives to increase
output by 1 million barrels per day over five years.
March 23, 2007
LONDON, -- Iraqi Kurdistan wants to
drastically increase the presence of foreign oil
companies operating in Kurdistan region by the end
of the year, the Kurdish energy minister said in an
interview published Friday.
While the rest of Iraq continues to be ravaged by
violence, the Kurdistan Regional Government hopes to
sign oil exploration deals with 10 foreign companies
this year.
KRG's natural resources minister, Ashti Hawrami,
speaking at a conference in London yesterday,
predicted that production in the Kurdish region
would rise to 200,000 barrels per day by 2008, and 1
million bpd over the next five years - half the
current oil output of the whole of Iraq. |
Kurdistan Oil |
"We are in discussions with a number of other
companies," Ashti Hawrami told the Financial Times.
There are already five companies operating in the
semi-autonomous Kurdish region, including Norway's
DNO, Turkey's Genel and Western Oil Sands of Canada.
The new deals could include Norway's Statoil.
Under an oil investment law which has just been
approved by the Iraqi central government, the rules
for foreign involvement in the whole of the country
have been set down for the first time.
The KRG has been signing such deals since 2002, but
the new federal oil laws are expected to lead to
much greater interest from international companies.
Mr Hawrami refuted suggestions that the deals signed
so far, and those that will now follow for the KRG
and the rest of Iraq, offer unusually generous
returns to the foreign oil companies. He said that
the allowed returns would be 20 to 25 per cent, or a
13 to 18 per cent share of profit for exploration
contracts.
"I have a queue of people willing to sign contracts
on these terms. I don't know where all this talk
that we are giving away 75 per cent [return] comes
from... I would be horrified with even 30 or 40 per
cent," he said.
Mr Hawrami vowed to publish the terms of the
contracts signed so far and said he would "challenge
anyone to say they are not good terms for Iraq". He
conceded that any company signing up was doing so on
the basis of little available information on the
geology of the Kurdistan region. "There is no hard
data on Kurdistan. You might as well look at Google
Earth," he quipped.
Yet to be settled is the arrangement for collecting
Iraq's oil revenues and redistributing the cash to
the regions - which the new oil law states must be
done in proportion to regions' populations.
Mr Hawrami made clear that he would only agree if a
totally independent body was put in charge of the
revenues, not the central government.
The money would be collected outside the country, he
said. He suggested the process could be supervised
by an international organisation.
"There is not enough trust, you cannot just say 'we
are all brothers' and I trust you to give me my
share," Mr Hawrami said.
independent co.uk | AP
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