Iraq Oil Report

Plus:
*Kurds considering legal action against Oil Minister
*Oil companies hold onto cash intended for Iraq
*Oil Ministry plans 300,000 barrel per day oil refinery in Nasiriyah
*The legislative progress minus oil

As the final day of registration closes, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said more than 70 firms from around the world have submitted papers, Reuters reports. Iraq has the world’s third largest oil reserves – and is highly underexplored – and needs major investment into its oil sector ravaged by war, sanctions and Saddam Hussein’s mismanagement.

The Oil Ministry is going to vet those companies and announce the names next month of those who will be able to bid on contracts.

“We are going to carefully study and check the documentation. Next month we will declare the companies which are permitted to work in the Iraqi oilfields,” Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told told Ahmed Rasheed of Reuters.

Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has basically told oil companies who have signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government not to bother to preregister. He’s already cut SK Energy, the South Korean refiner, from importing Iraqi oil, as well as Austria’s OMV.
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp., ONGC, is one of the pre-registrants, Reuters reports.

The Kurdish semiautonomous rule is considering filing a case at Iraq’s constitutional court against the federal Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani for opposing oil deals signed by the Kurds with foreign companies, Hassan Hafidh reports for Dow Jones Newswires.

Iraq is inching toward attracting the billions of dollars needed to revamp its oil sector but international oil companies are still not ready to commit the massive sums required, Simon Webb reports for Reuters.

Top executives at Shell and ExxonMobil said the same in Houston last week, Ben Lando reports for UPI.

Iraq’s leaders surprised even their many critics by passing three laws last week that marked an important step toward national reconciliation, Dean Yates writes for Reuters. But that is all it represents — a step on the tortuous road to healing divisions among communities still deeply divided and wary of each other despite dramatic cuts in violence.

For more, read Oil Not Part of New Iraq Laws by UPI’s Ben Lando.

Also, Iraq Oil Law Stalled, No End to Impasse in Sight, by Reuters’ Ahmed Rasheed.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry is negotiating with international firms to build a massive refinery in Nasiriyah to help alleviate fuel shortages throughout the country, UPI reports. Iraq currently has a 598,000 barrel per day refining capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Department’s data arm, the Energy Information Administration, but the refineries usually don’t work at maximum when online. The new Nasiriyah refinery would add 300,000 barrels per day capacity.

The commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, announced a new way to communicate updates on Iraqi reconstruction efforts – a blog, UPI reports. It can be found here by its slightly off title “Corps e-spondence”

Read Iraq’s editorial pages, the Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

Kurds impose limits on where Arabs can live in Iraq’s north, Leila Fadel reports for McClatchy Newspapers.
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