Iraq to sign $1.2b oil service deal with China
Iraq will sign a $1.2 billion oil service contract with China to replace a production-sharing deal agreed under Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi newspaper quoted oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani as saying on Tuesday. The oil minister is travelling to China...
Iraq will sign a $1.2 billion oil service contract with China to replace a production-sharing deal agreed under Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi newspaper quoted oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani as saying on Tuesday.
The oil minister is travelling to China at the end of this month to discuss the deal, which was originally signed in 1997 between Iraq and the China National Petrolium Company (CNPC).
"We have held talks (with the Chinese) for a year, and the terms of the deal were changed to a service contract. The Chinese have agreed on that, with a value of $1.2 billion," Mr Shahristani told the an-Noor newspaper.
If finalised, the revised deal would be the first oil service contract signed by the new Iraqi government since the fall of Saddam in 2003.
Iraq has said in the past that it would honour the original Saddam-era deal in principle but wanted to renegotiate terms.
The original deal, valued at $670 million at a time when oil prices were much lower than today, would have given the Chinese a long-term production-sharing stake in the Ahdab oilfield, a small field projected to produce 90,000 barrels per day.
The oil minister is travelling to China at the end of this month to discuss the deal, which was originally signed in 1997 between Iraq and the China National Petrolium Company (CNPC).
"We have held talks (with the Chinese) for a year, and the terms of the deal were changed to a service contract. The Chinese have agreed on that, with a value of $1.2 billion," Mr Shahristani told the an-Noor newspaper.
If finalised, the revised deal would be the first oil service contract signed by the new Iraqi government since the fall of Saddam in 2003.
Iraq has said in the past that it would honour the original Saddam-era deal in principle but wanted to renegotiate terms.
The original deal, valued at $670 million at a time when oil prices were much lower than today, would have given the Chinese a long-term production-sharing stake in the Ahdab oilfield, a small field projected to produce 90,000 barrels per day.