Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani on March 15 said Baghdad
was awaiting passage of the petroleum law through parliament before
end-May. He said almost all IOCs had indicated "interest to come
and work in Iraq; we have MoUs with almost all of them... They are
preparing themselves but there is no negotiation about the development
of any particular field".
The law will create INOC which will be responsible for prised
oilfields already discovered and producing. These fields, such as West
Qurna, Majnoon and Nahr Umr, are coveted by the majors. Under Saddam a
Russian group headed by LUKoil had signed a deal to develop West Qurna,
but that was cancelled by Iraq in 2002. Baghdad is reviewing a deal to
develop al-Ahdab field which had been signed with the state-owned China
National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and China's state arms manufacturer
Norinco. Total has initialled deals for Majnoon and Nahr Umr.
Shahristani said PSAs had not been proposed yet as an investment model.
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