BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 Iraq's government is discussing oil field development with global oil majors as it attempts to boost production amidst security concerns.
Iraq produces about 2 million barrels per day now, but the vast oil sector needs billions in investment to fix and modernize the operating infrastructure, let alone develop and explore.
Iraq Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said earlier this month in Dubai his government would move forward on signing oil deals despite the lack of a modern oil law. That law is stuck in parliamentary debate. Shahristani would rely on 1980s legislation to dictate deals.
The Christian Science Monitor reports Chevron is in talks with Iraq to develop in the south of the country; Shell for fields in Kirkuk; Japex for east Baghdad fields; Ivanov, the Russian firm, in northwest Iraq; and ConocoPhillips has teamed with the state-run Northern Oil Co. for the Kirkuk area.
The five-year plan for Iraq is to boost production to more than 6 million barrels per day, exporting 5.2 million. Iraq imports much of its fuels but is looking to build new refineries to meet domestic demand.
Iraq exports about 1.6 million bpd now, nearly all from ports in Basra, in the south. The main pipeline in the north, from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey, has been attacked so often it is largely irrelevant. Security patrols along the pipeline have been stepped up and $30 million worth of fortification projects are to be finished in March, the Monitor reports.
The added protection wasn't enough to keep a bomb from exploding under the pipeline between Kirkuk and Baiji, Iraq, last week, halting the limited exports that had been flowing for a few weeks.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
