Iraq Oil Minister: no security obstacle to oil field development

Wed, 10 Feb 2010

Baghdad - Iraq has told foreign companies contracted to develop 10 oil fields that security will not be a problem, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrastani said Wednesday. He told a news conference the security situation in Iraq was not the problem, but the possibility of war in other countries in the region was.

Fifteen oil companies representing 13 countries in 18 consortiums have won contracts to develop 10 oil fields, most of which are in the south of the country, he said.

"These contracts revolutionized the oil world, as the ceiling for crude oil production will rise to more than 12 million barrels per day over the next six years."

The minister re-iterated Tuesday's announcement that oil exports from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish areas would resume soon.

Exports from the Kurdish region were halted because of a dispute between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) over the KRG's contracts with foreign companies to export the oil.

Al-Shahrastani said the contracts "came about in unnatural circumstances."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/308523,iraq-oil-minister-no-security-obstacle-to-oil-field-development.html.