Baghdad – The Iraqi cabinet has approved three oil and gas contracts as a part of Iraq’s attempt to attract more investment for developing the energy sector. These contracts have been provided by the foreign firms and this information has been revealed by eh government spokesman.
It is the expectation that Iraq the OPEC member will emerge as the biggest resource of oil supplies in the next few years.
The country has already signed contracts with international oil companies and is also planning to open more bidding rounds for the additional amount of oil and gas blocks.
Ali al-Dabbagh, the ministry spokesman has said that the cabinet has approved the gas exploration contact with Pakistan Petroleum for the gas block of 8 and the oil block-10 contract of development has been provided to a group of companies which is being lead by Lukoil.
The cabinet has also approved the initial deal that happened with Bashneft of Russia and according to the contract; this company will develop the oil block-12. The approvals are being delayed because the contract that has been signed by the consortium led by Kuwait Energy and the contract will be signed for the oil block-89.
Dabbagh has further added that the cabinet actually decided to delay the approval of a contract for block 9 because the ministry is yet to complete some of the procedures, but he refused to provide any more details.
The contracts which have been approved by the cabinet will have the final sign from the oil ministry of Iraq.
In May, at the fourth energy auction of Iraq, only a few of the international companies have won bids. That was really a poor result because the contract terms were really pretty tough in the part of Baghdad.
The country is in the rebuilding process, but the process is going rather slow, even 9 years after the US invasion in the country which toppled the former government led by President Saddam Hussein.
The officials are of the opinion that the country will require foreign investment in almost all the sectors for improving the infrastructure.
Source [Reuters]