Iraq: ‘Hydrocarbons law delayed until after January election’
The proposed law, which would regulate the oil sector and divide responsibility between the central government in Baghdad and Iraq’s provinces, has been held up for three years due to disagreements between MPs from the country’s majority Shia and minority Sunnite, Kurd and other communities.
“There is no agreement on the contents of the oil law... because this government wants the management of the oil sector to be centralized”, said Ali Hussein Balo, a Kurd and chairman of the parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee.
“Due to these conflicts, we have decided to delay the oil law enactment until after the election”, he told journalists.
Iraq hopes to be able to pump six million barrels per day (BPD), up from the current output of around 2.5 million, within the next four to five years as new projects come online, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has said.
The country has the world’s third-largest proven reserves of oil, with more than 115 billion barrels, behind only Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But investment in Iraq’s ageing energy infrastructure has been hampered by delays to the hydrocarbons law.
When the government auctioned eight major energy contracts in June, only energy giants BP and China’s CNPC won a bid, agreeing to receive only two dollars a barrel to operate the giant Rumaila field, which has known reserves of 17.7 billion barrels.
It was the first big upstream agreement between Iraq and foreign oil majors since nationalization of the country’s oil production about four decades ago.
The second round of bidding for Iraqi oil contracts is due in the first half of December, Shahristani said last month.
Per a new article the second around of bidding got moved to January
The proposed law, which would regulate the oil sector and divide responsibility between the central government in Baghdad and Iraq’s provinces, has been held up for three years due to disagreements between MPs from the country’s majority Shia and minority Sunnite, Kurd and other communities.
“There is no agreement on the contents of the oil law... because this government wants the management of the oil sector to be centralized”, said Ali Hussein Balo, a Kurd and chairman of the parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee.
“Due to these conflicts, we have decided to delay the oil law enactment until after the election”, he told journalists.
Iraq hopes to be able to pump six million barrels per day (BPD), up from the current output of around 2.5 million, within the next four to five years as new projects come online, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has said.
The country has the world’s third-largest proven reserves of oil, with more than 115 billion barrels, behind only Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But investment in Iraq’s ageing energy infrastructure has been hampered by delays to the hydrocarbons law.
When the government auctioned eight major energy contracts in June, only energy giants BP and China’s CNPC won a bid, agreeing to receive only two dollars a barrel to operate the giant Rumaila field, which has known reserves of 17.7 billion barrels.
It was the first big upstream agreement between Iraq and foreign oil majors since nationalization of the country’s oil production about four decades ago.
The second round of bidding for Iraqi oil contracts is due in the first half of December, Shahristani said last month.
Per a new article the second around of bidding got moved to January