News

July 01, 2009

Oil Companies Balk At High Price Of Entry To Develop Iraq Fields

More than thirty years after nationalisation and four years after the post Saddam Hussein government came to power in Iraq, the government there is throwing open its doors to companies to come in and develop the country’s neglected oil fields.

In what seems like a bit of a scramble, executives from some 55 groups including some of the world’s largest oil concerns (as well as some more modest E&Ps) have made their way to Baghdad. Braving sandstorms and continued violence in the streets of the Iraqi capital these oil men are taking part in a television auction to develop or repair eight oil fields.

Iraq, with 113 billion barrels of known reserves, is the world’s third largest repository of the so-called black gold, after Saudi...