Iraq Oil Report

Turkey restarted loadings of halted Iraqi oil exports on Tuesday after Iraq paid $50 million of a total $100 million debt, a senior source from the state pipeline company Botas told Reuters.

An Iraq oil ministry official had said earlier Iraq’s Kirkuk oil exports to Turkey had been halted after a Turkish court ordered the stoppage pending settlement of the claim.

Speigal Online said Iraq is attempting to revive its oil business. And in Iraq, The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce also sees opportunity for German companies. “There is also demand for German companies in the area of technologies for oil exploration,” said commerce chief Axel Nitschke, adding that oil could provide Iraq with a fresh start economically.

Iraq has asked international oil companies to revise proposals for technical service contracts worth about $3 billion that aim to boost the country’s oil output by about a quarter.

The revisions could delay the signing of the six contracts — worth around $500 million each — until August or September, Simon Webb and Mohammed Abbas report for Reuters.

Iraq is sitting on billions of barrels of oil, but it doesn’t have the money or expertise to pull it out of the ground, so it’s looking to European energy firms to help get the job done.

In the long term, Iraq plans to partner with foreign companies to develop new wells, says Marketplaces’ Dan Grech.

The oil industry is cautious about Iraq’s decision to offer foreign companies long-term contracts to develop its largest producing fields, with any windfalls seen as distant and likely to go to a select few firms.

Earlier this month, Iraq said it would offer development contracts aimed at boosting output at six fields by a combined 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd).

The plan, says Tom Bergin with Reuters, is aimed at helping the country lift output to 4.5 million bpd by 2013 from about 2.3 million bpd now.

But Iraq’s decision to pay companies a fee for extracting the oil, rather than sell them an interest in fields, dashed hopes of near-term windfalls and may delay big rises in crude production.

Will the war in Iraq give us the Tiger? Military scientists at Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground hope so. The machine - its full name is the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery - combines a chute, an engine, chemical tanks and other components, giving it the appearance of a lunar rover. It’s designed to turn food and waste into fuel. If it works, it could save scores of American and Iraqi lives, says Josh Mitchell with The Baltimore Sun.