In retrospect, and despite what was considered at the time a ridiculously low fee, producing oil fields awarded to international oil companies in the first bid round turned out to be the most lucrative in terms of the service fee they will be paid. That’s excluding the three fields that will be producing less than 200,000 b/d (see table below). Even with the protracted negotiations over amendments to the final producing…
Tag: Shell
Final Tasks
The formal signing Sunday of the final agreement for the development of the Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq by Royal Dutch Shell and its Malaysian partner Petronas, set the ball rolling for a series of signatures this week and next. By the end of January, all contracts awarded in the first and second bid rounds will become effective and operators will start the actual work on the ground. Southern…
2nd Bid Round Results
In response to Mr. I Chalabi’s comments, with all due respect I disagree with his remarks for the following reasons: There is certainly warranted rush to award all the fields included in both rounds, and more to come; a wider perspective on the role of oil in Iraq’s future is being lost. After years of misrule and total bad management coupled with the effects of sanctions, and the post-2003 violence,…
The Day After
The long-awaited party is over and now the real work is about to start. This is when the winners start going over the nitty-gritty of the model contract to try and tie loose ends in a bid to pull the extra mile out of a service contract. But at the end of the day, a service contract is a service contract. There is only so much one can adjust and…