Expectations that foreign companies will cash in on Iraqi oil riches were called into question tonight after a key parliamentary body in Baghdad pledged to "push Shell out" and halt a forthcoming licensing round.
The warning from Jabir Khalifa Jabir, secretary of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee, was seen by financial analysts as a serious threat to western investment opportunities in a country that holds the second-largest oil reserves in the world.
Shell has been considered a frontrunner in the race to seize control of the Iraqi energy sector after signing a $4bn deal to process and market gas from the south of the country and ship it, possibly to Britain as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
But the preliminary agreement – and a subsequent one with China National Petroleum Corporation – were unconstitutional and detrimental to Iraq's economic interests, said Jabir, who worked for more than 15 years at Iraq's state-run Southern Gas Company.
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Just watch the security situation in Iraq deteriorate significantly now!
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