Production-sharing contracts: a dying breed?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The issue of production-sharing contracts (PSCs, also called production-sharing agreements, or PSAs) in Iraq is a contentious one. Encouraged initially by American advisers as the best means for investment in post-war Iraq by, the system, which allows oil companies to take a share of the profits of all oil extracted, can mean that if oil prices rise, oil companies make huge profits without increasing their investment. Iraq Oil Report guest contributor and former U.S. energy offici…