Plus:
*Petrel also says Oil Ministry agrees to payment, ditches Kurdish partner
*Confirmation and details of KRG-South Korea oil investment
*Fields in second oil and gas bidding round discussed
*Kanaqin residents say fight is over oil, future in Iraq
*Alive in Baghdad: Sadr City vs. the Walls
*Food rations to be cut
*Election rules ban some religious images
Iraqi oil and gas deals aren’t just for Big Oil as smaller firms already active in the country are better placed, the head of Petr…
Plus:
*Progress on another joint venture, this time for oil drilling
*What the passage of an election law means
*Iraq Press Roundup
An Iraqi oil ministry spokesman says Iraq and China will finalize a US$3 billion oil agreement next week. Assem Jihad says a Chinese delegation will visit Baghdad to sign the deal, The Associated Press reports.
The contract to develop the Ahdab field in southern Iraq is one of four Saddam-era contracts that the Oil Ministry has said it will uphold but reneg…
* Repairs following storms in south and northern bomb successful
Plus:
*Maliki reportedly asks British for energy help
*Parliamentarians displeased with Electricity Minister
*Iraq preps record budget for 2009
*Cholera epidemic spreads
*Reidar Visser on the Democratic Party’s Iraq plan
Iraq has resumed oil exports following a storm that shut in the southern port of Basra and the completion of repairs to the bomb-damaged northern pipeline that carries crude from the northern Kirkuk fi…
Plus:
*Parliament held up on election law
*Voter registration low
*Alive in Baghdad: Getting to School in Iraq
The Bush administration would press the Iraqi government to adopt an oil trust fund for distributing revenue or risk economic assistance under a bill proposed by Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Ensign, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.
The New York Democrat and the Nevada Republican see their legislation as an end-around the Iraqi political debate over an oil law…
Plus:
*More on the Shell gas deal
*German, UAE and Iran investors eye southern refineries
*Alive in Baghdad: Selling Fuel
*Kidnapping in the NOC
Iraq won’t award temporary oilfield services contracts to international companies before a bidding round aimed at bringing in foreign expertise to boost crude production, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said, Bloomberg News reports. Iraq will instead go ahead with new long-term exploration contracts before approving a new energy law, he said….
Iraq’s Cabinet approved an initial gas agreement between the Oil Ministry and Royal Dutch Shell to invest in a joint venture to tap natural gas in southern Iraq, a government statement said.
The agreement calls for establishing a joint venture between the state-run South Oil Co. and Shell to exploit the fields, the statement added without any other details.
Shell is expected to invest US$3 billion to US$4 billion over five years to gather at least 500-600 million cubic feet of flared gas …
Energy expert Luay Jawadal-Khatteeb calls Shell’s associated gas deal “unethical,” explains why Iraq needs a gas master plan that will meet domestic needs first.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq addresses the criticism he’s received for attempting to enter Iraq’s oil sector.
The former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq runs a consulting firm focused on Iraq investments and has just been named to Norwegian oil firm DNO, whose Kurdish projects have stoked controversy. He talks to Iraq Oil Report.
