VP says legal ground behind reservations about oil field licenses
July 1, 2009 - 04:18:08
BAGHDAD
/ Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on Wednesday
said that the reservations he has about the first round of oil field
licenses are based on “legal grounds.”
“Legislation should be enacted to enable the government to contract
in accordance with the Investment Law of the National Oil Company no.
97 of the year 1967…,” Hashemi said in a statement released by his
office and received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Technically speaking, Hashemi noted, experts from the Ministry of Oil
said that the first round of bids did not meet the economic and
technical conditions set out in the law on protecting the hydrocarbon
wealth no. 84 of the year 1985.
Yesterday (June 30), the first round of bids ended with the British
Petroleum (BP) and the Chinese firm (CANC) winning licenses to develop
the al-Rumaila northern and southern oil field.
The companies are expected to raise the field’s production from 950,000 to 2.85 million barrels per day (bpd).
In accordance with the deal, the two companies will get $2 U.S. dollars
for each produced barrel over the current 950,000 per day.
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