11 May 2010 Deal on Iraq Kurdish oil exports could come soon
DOHA - A deal between Iraq’s central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region to restart oil exports could come within days, Iraq’s deputy oil minister said on Tuesday.
The Iraqi government deems independent contracts signed by the Kurdish Regional Government with around two dozen companies to be illegal.
Paying international oil firms such as Norway’s DNO and Turkey’s Genel Enerji is a main hurdle to relaunching exports from Kurdish oilfields.
“It (a deal) could be within days from now,” Deputy Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy event in Qatar’s capital.
“We hope to start exports soon.”
Luaibi said the speed of the deal would depend on how quickly a committee studying the costs incurred by companies in developing Kurdish oilfields came to its conclusions.
Exports from two fields, Taq Taq and Tawke, occurred briefly last summer, only to be suspended when Baghdad refused to pay the firms and the KRG declined to cover their costs from its share of national oil revenues.
DNO gave no guidance as to when it might restart exports from Iraq when it reported first-quarter results on Tuesday. But it has said it can quickly ramp up to 50,000 barrels per day output from Tawke once it gains an export licence.
Multibillion-dollar deals
DOHA - A deal between Iraq’s central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region to restart oil exports could come within days, Iraq’s deputy oil minister said on Tuesday.
The Iraqi government deems independent contracts signed by the Kurdish Regional Government with around two dozen companies to be illegal.
Paying international oil firms such as Norway’s DNO and Turkey’s Genel Enerji is a main hurdle to relaunching exports from Kurdish oilfields.
“It (a deal) could be within days from now,” Deputy Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy event in Qatar’s capital.
“We hope to start exports soon.”
Luaibi said the speed of the deal would depend on how quickly a committee studying the costs incurred by companies in developing Kurdish oilfields came to its conclusions.
Exports from two fields, Taq Taq and Tawke, occurred briefly last summer, only to be suspended when Baghdad refused to pay the firms and the KRG declined to cover their costs from its share of national oil revenues.
DNO gave no guidance as to when it might restart exports from Iraq when it reported first-quarter results on Tuesday. But it has said it can quickly ramp up to 50,000 barrels per day output from Tawke once it gains an export licence.
Multibillion-dollar deals
Iraq’s minority Kurds enjoy virtual autonomy in the northern region but are embroiled in disputes over land, oil and power with majority Arabs.
Iraq concluded multibillion-dollar deals with global oil majors in recent months to more than quadruple national output capacity from 2.5 million barrels per day.
Luaibi said Iraq hoped to export 2.3 million barrels per day next year. “Right now we’re at around 2 million barrels per day,” he said.
Luaibi also said no date had been set for signing a final contract with China’s CNOOC and Sinochem to develop the 2.5-billion barrel Maysan oilfield complex. He said CNOOC had asked for more time to talk to its partners.
“It all depends on them. We are ready from our side,” Luaibi said.
The parties signed a preliminary deal weeks ago after the companies accepted the government’s proposed remuneration fee of $2.30 for every additional barrel of oil produced.
The production plateau for the field is 400,000 to 450,000 barrels per day, Luaibi said.
On a stalled deal for the Nassiriya field, Luaibi said Iraq would try to restart talks with Japan’s Nippon Oil Corp but tough conditions on financing the project made it difficult to reach a deal.
Iraq said in February it planned to develop the Nassiriya field, which is listed as having reserves of under 5 billion barrels, on its own after months of talks with Nippon.
The Iraqi government is hoping the spate of recent oil deals will generate cash needed to rebuild the nation’s shattered economy and infrastructure after years of war, sanctions and economic decline.
