6 November 2006 Three-and-a-half years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, some companies that had high hopes of business opportunities are shutting up shop after suffering heavy losses. US engineering giant Bechtel, which carried out $2.3 billion of work for the US in Iraq since April 2003, said last week that it was leaving the war-torn country after a spate of violence that killed 52 workers. Bechtel…
Tag: Al-Ahdab
Iraq Favors Transparent Process for Future Upstream Bidding
22 October 2003 Iraqi oil ministry officials favor open bidding for any future contracts for oil fields and exploration blocks, embracing both companies involved in previous negotiations and new contenders, mainly US majors for whom Iraq was off-limits. “We have proposals that we are formulating, but that still need to be submitted for approval by the oil minister and the political echelons in Iraq,” Natik al-Bayati, senior adviser at the…
Iraq: Who’s Working Where?
28 February 2003 In talking about possible war against Iraq, Bush administration officials insist that their main objective is not to get their hands on the country’s massive oil reserves. But post-war, fierce competition is almost bound to erupt between US oil firms that have been kept off-limits by the Iraqis, and those — including Russian, Asian, and European companies — that either have firm contracts with the current regime…
Solo Efforts
4 July 2002 Iraq is developing its oil fields with or without foreign help — including the giant fields promised to companies such as France’s Total Fina Elf and Russia’s Lukoil. But the firms are always welcome to hop on board, Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Rashid says. Under a “national effort” launched in 1999, Iraq brought the giant southern Majnoon oil field on stream last year, Rashid says. The field…