Bill
01-25-2008, 06:21 PM
Saudi Arabia is struggling to pump 9 milllion barrels a day - and ignored Bush's begging that they pump more last week.
Iraqs Shia oil minister says Iraq will pump 8 Million BPD in non-OPEC oil in ten years.
Saudi Arabia is already planning to deal with this - you know how? By building three giant industrial cities devoted to producing aluminum, steel, and fertilizers. They will keep the oil for themselves, and turn themselves into an industrial superpower. It's a brilliant strategy, the perfect revenge for our handing Iraq to the Shia controlled from Iran.
You didn't know about SA's plan to become an industrial supergiant? Let me guess - you don't read much?
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/25/ap4576361.html
"We expect to take Iraq to between 6 (million) and 8 million barrels a day ... in about 10 to 12 years," Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told The Associated Press Friday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, saying most of the extra production would be coming from "green fields" identified but not yet exploited.
Such estimates are definitely on the high end. Still, the big oil companies appear to be believers in the future of Iraq as perhaps the Middle East's last oil frontier - and are already trying to gain the best toehold in a contest that in part pits Russia's state-linked sector against major players from the United States and Europe.
"All the majors and the minor oil companies have shown a great interest including the Russians, obviously," al-Shahristani said as he took a break from meeting key figures in the industry for an interview in the lobby of his hotel at this Swiss Alpine resort. "They are all very keen to come and work in Iraq."
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Ehsan ul-Haq, chief analyst at PVM Oil Associates in Vienna, Austria, said the general perception in the industry is "that there are much more possibilities in Iraq than anywhere else in the Middle East."
So who will get the nod? Al-Shahristani says the playing field is level.
"We have been telling everybody ... that ... awarding contracts is going to be (a) transparent, public competition, according to the international industrial norms," he said.
Still considering America's huge footprint in the country, the big U.S. oil companies might have the advantage. And that could deal a setback to Russia's drive to take a bigger share of the energy pie - most recently demonstrated by lucrative pipeline deals and company purchases in the Balkans by gas giant Gazprom.
Al-Shahristani denied any planned favoritism.
"We are not going to look at the nationalities of the companies," he said, adding that U.S. companies hoping to win bids "have to offer the Iraqis the highest return."
"They have to abide by the rules of the game like everybody else," he said.
But Ul-Haq said sentiment is that "the American companies will have the advantage in Iraq, even though the Russians have been trying to improve their relations with the government."
Complicating any bidding are disputes over a proposed oil and gas law, meant to divvy up those resources among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - one of the benchmarks sought by the United States to achieve national reconciliation.
The Iraqi Cabinet approved a U.S.-backed draft bill last February and forwarded it to parliament. But parliament, citing legal technicalities, sent it back to the Cabinet. The measure has been bogged down in negotiations ever since.
With national legislation stalled, Kurdish authorities have signed more than a dozen contracts with foreign companies over the objections by Oil Ministry officials in Baghdad, who consider the deals to produce oil in northern Iraq illegal.
Iraqs Shia oil minister says Iraq will pump 8 Million BPD in non-OPEC oil in ten years.
Saudi Arabia is already planning to deal with this - you know how? By building three giant industrial cities devoted to producing aluminum, steel, and fertilizers. They will keep the oil for themselves, and turn themselves into an industrial superpower. It's a brilliant strategy, the perfect revenge for our handing Iraq to the Shia controlled from Iran.
You didn't know about SA's plan to become an industrial supergiant? Let me guess - you don't read much?
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/25/ap4576361.html
"We expect to take Iraq to between 6 (million) and 8 million barrels a day ... in about 10 to 12 years," Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told The Associated Press Friday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, saying most of the extra production would be coming from "green fields" identified but not yet exploited.
Such estimates are definitely on the high end. Still, the big oil companies appear to be believers in the future of Iraq as perhaps the Middle East's last oil frontier - and are already trying to gain the best toehold in a contest that in part pits Russia's state-linked sector against major players from the United States and Europe.
"All the majors and the minor oil companies have shown a great interest including the Russians, obviously," al-Shahristani said as he took a break from meeting key figures in the industry for an interview in the lobby of his hotel at this Swiss Alpine resort. "They are all very keen to come and work in Iraq."
---
Ehsan ul-Haq, chief analyst at PVM Oil Associates in Vienna, Austria, said the general perception in the industry is "that there are much more possibilities in Iraq than anywhere else in the Middle East."
So who will get the nod? Al-Shahristani says the playing field is level.
"We have been telling everybody ... that ... awarding contracts is going to be (a) transparent, public competition, according to the international industrial norms," he said.
Still considering America's huge footprint in the country, the big U.S. oil companies might have the advantage. And that could deal a setback to Russia's drive to take a bigger share of the energy pie - most recently demonstrated by lucrative pipeline deals and company purchases in the Balkans by gas giant Gazprom.
Al-Shahristani denied any planned favoritism.
"We are not going to look at the nationalities of the companies," he said, adding that U.S. companies hoping to win bids "have to offer the Iraqis the highest return."
"They have to abide by the rules of the game like everybody else," he said.
But Ul-Haq said sentiment is that "the American companies will have the advantage in Iraq, even though the Russians have been trying to improve their relations with the government."
Complicating any bidding are disputes over a proposed oil and gas law, meant to divvy up those resources among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - one of the benchmarks sought by the United States to achieve national reconciliation.
The Iraqi Cabinet approved a U.S.-backed draft bill last February and forwarded it to parliament. But parliament, citing legal technicalities, sent it back to the Cabinet. The measure has been bogged down in negotiations ever since.
With national legislation stalled, Kurdish authorities have signed more than a dozen contracts with foreign companies over the objections by Oil Ministry officials in Baghdad, who consider the deals to produce oil in northern Iraq illegal.