Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, write Susan Schmidt and Glenn R. Simpson for The Wall Street Journal.
Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.
It would involve a tract called K18, near the Kurdish city of Erbil, according to documents describing the plan.
Gas Cities LLC, a joint venture between Dana GasDana GasLoading… PJSC, the Middle East’s first and largest regional private-sector natural gas company, and its partner Crescent PetroleumCrescent, announced that the 461 million square foot site for the Kurdistan Gas City has been officially assigned by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), for development by Gas Cities LLC, following extensive surveys that have been completed on potential sites within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The groundbreaking ceremony of the Kurdistan Gas City will take place on the 21st of September, 2008, a joint statement read.
The U.S.’s Energy Information Administration projects that crude oil prices will average about $127 a barrel in 2008 and $133 in 2009, up from the $72 average in 2007. With the world’s third largest proven reserves, and production having finally returned to 2.5 million barrels per day, Iraq’s revenues will surely be greater than in past years. Iraq is expected to draw $70 billion in oil revenue this year alone, and its government has announced plans to further increase oil production.
One of the first things Iraq will need to do is upgrade its equipment used for oil production, writes Daveed Gartenstein-Ross for the Middle East Times.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry says oil exports in June amounted to 58.1 mn barrels, a 4.3 per cent decline from the previous month.
Sunday’s statement says it sold for US$123 a barrel and yielded US$7.141 bn. It adds that 43.6 mn barrels were exported through the south and 14.5 mn from Turkey’s port of Ceyhan. No reason was given a reason, but exports through Basra’s ports were suspended for a few days last month because of sandstorms, The Economic Times of India reported.
Reports that a number of international oil companies are on the brink of signing contracts with Iraq have prompted a furious reaction in certain parts of the media and on Capitol Hill. The deals have been widely characterised as no-bid contracts, implying that Big Oil has somehow used its political clout to muscle in on Iraq and renewing suspicion that the whole US intervention in Iraq was primarily a grab for natural resources, Raad Alkadiri reports for Gulf News.
Foreign firms are reluctant to invest in the country’s service contracts which the Oil Ministry is currently negotiating, the Iraqi daily Azzaman reported.
Iraqi oil officials say they doubt whether any of the firms expressing a willingness to sign service contracts will start work in earnest once they win the deals.
Generally, foreign majors are not as keen to enter into oil service deals unless they have some form of guarantee that they will be given preferential treatment with more lucrative contracts concerning the development of new fields.
The government is not constitutionally authorized to sign development deals but it has the right to strike service deals with foreign firms.
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