24 June 2009 | News | Extractive industries
The Colour of Oil
After 3 decades of nationalization, foreign companies will exploit oil resources in Iraq.
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For the first time since 1972, Iraq will authorize foreign companies to exploit its resources, considered the third world´s largest reserve. For decades, the state had the exclusive exploitation of oil and gas resources, but the authorities will allow the privatization of six important oil fields, amounting to 43 billion barrels.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain al Shahristani, supported in Parliament the privatization project, after several MPs expressed their concerns about authorizing oil transnational corporations to exploit the Iraqi soil.
“The oil minister must explain why the government spent $8 billion to develop oil fields, but then offered them to foreign corporations”, the secretary of parliament’s oil and gas committee, Jabir Khalifa Jabir, told Reuters.
Over thirty of the world´s largest oil companies have paid the government to be considered in the call for bids of oil fields, which will take place at the end of this month.
Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell are some of the companies interested. Repsol was not considered since their proposal was not attractive for the Iraqi authorities, according to the Spanish press.
Iraqi authorities argue that the presence of oil foreign companies is necessary since they can contribute with technology to exploit resources, which is not available in Iraq. But this argument does not satisfy the lawmakers, who think the call for bids is not legal and it is not beneficial for the interests of the country, which has been occupied by the US military forces since 2003.
