Despite the accusations directed by some observers to the administration of President George Bush that he launched war against Iraq with the aim of controlling its oil resources, a number of Asian oil companies, especially from China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia, may win the first foreign contracts of investment in Iraq's oil sector.
While the Iraqi Parliament is still making further consultations on the new oil law, which would regulate the working conditions of foreign oil companies in Iraq as well as how to distribute the proceeds of oil exports, the Iraqi government intends to continue working with those companies from Asian States, which had won previous deals during the rule of the late President Saddam Hussein.
James Black, a large contributor to the "Cambridge" Institution for energy research and specialized in Middle East affairs, said: "The Chinese may announce new contracts with Iraq in the next few months", if the current progress in consultations on the new oil law continues.
Oil expert, Falah al-Jabouri, who worked as an adviser to a number of oil ministers of Iraq and a number of "OPEC" countries, said : "Asian companies have many additional advantages against Western companies, such as: these companies did not pay any attention, in the past, to Western sanctions on Iraq, and they know Iraqi oilfields very well".
Al-Jabouri hinted that the Chinese may win the first contracts, under the new oil law, in the central southern Iraq while Vietnamese may gain the right to work south of the country, and the Indians along the lines with Kuwait, as for the Indonesians, they may win the right to work in the desert west of Baghdad.
The Iraqi oil expert, pointed out that the initial contracts with Asian companies will be relatively limited, explaining that the offer from the Chinese company, includes the extraction of 70 thousand barrels of oil per day, while the Vietnamese company will extract 60 thousand barrels per day.
The Energy Committee in the Iraqi Parliament will hold a symposium on the "controversial" draft law on oil and gas, in the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, under the slogan "scientific and technical reading in the light of national interests of Iraq".
The symposium will be chaired by Sheikh Khalid al-Attiyah, first deputy chairman of the Iraqi parliament, and attended by a number of Iraqi political figures, including: Dr. Barham Salih, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Hussein Shahrastani, oil minister and Ali Baban, Minister of Planning and Development Cooperation, as well as the oil minister in "Kurdistan" region, in addition to a number of the Iraqi parliament’s members, and a group of experts in the field of oil.
The symposium aims to discuss the draft law of oil and gas and the new strategic and technical dimensions of this law which will organize the work of the Iraqi oil sector, before submitting it to the Iraqi parliament for discussion and ratification.
Iraqi media quoted Sheikh Khaled al-Attiyah, as saying that the holding of this seminar outside Iraq, "is to provide a suitable atmosphere for the discussion of the bill, away from the political tensions at home, and ensure more open atmosphere of learning all minute details that could be raised during the symposium, as well as to enable a number of dignitaries who can not travel to Iraq because of the security situation from attending the seminar".
The Presidential Council had referred the Iraqi oil and gas law, which was approved by the government of Maliki, to the parliament for discussion and voting on it, and that created angry reactions by some political blocs which saw in it "a waste of national wealth which will be captive to foreign investments to certain States, and deprive companies in some countries from participation, because of their countries’ political stands".
Other political blocs condemned their Ministers voting for the Law, which was considered "a personal opinion," that does not express the point of view of these blocks.
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