Q. The Iraqi government took several decisions to proceed with the development of Iraq’s oil resources and to invite international oil companies to help develop oil fields, but no contracts have been awarded to date. Why is that?
A. There is more than one reason for the delays but the most important one is the lack of security that has been prevailing until recently. The security situation was not conducive to our own companies, let alone international companies, playing a role in development. This also applies to companies in other sectors related to the reconstruction of Iraq. This was normal at a time when Al-Qaeda and those who supported it created a situation where no one could enter Iraq, which meant that we could not achieve our goals in the oil and non-oil sectors. But we see more interest now from foreign companies following successes by the government in enforcing security and stability. All those companies that hesitated to come are now competing for the different oil contracts. And although we are happy with the licensing round announced recently and the interest expressed by international oil companies in competing for those contracts, we have decided in the council of ministers [this week] that we need to speed up the process and reduce the complications of the contracting process.
