Oil companies and contractors are considering to leave Iraq forever
Dispense oil companies and contractors are considering to leave Iraq forever
02/25/2014
The future of the project the British oil company, BP, leading the Rumaila field in danger after he was forced bureaucratic complications Baghdad company to cancel the contracts of hundreds of jobs that are critical for the company, as revealed by the Wall Street Journal.
The paper said the move highlights the growing challenges faced by the major Western oil companies operating in Iraq, not bode well for the country’s ambitious plans to revive its oil industry, which is still in the process of recovering from years of war and economic sanctions.
The newspaper said some of the major oil companies took the now liberated from the illusions work in Iraq because of the difficulties they face, so it’s now consider to leave Iraq forever.
Paolo Scaroni, CEO of Italian oil group Eni, said earlier this month that he had told the Iraqi government “either Tzilun obstacles or we will remove ourselves from this country.”
The problems began with the British oil company a few months ago after being stopped by the Iraqi government to ratify the contracts related to the high wages to work in Rumaila, according to what he said people familiar with the matter, as the Iraqi government stopped issuing new visas for workers working in the field.
The British oil company proceeded to inform the contractor about 100 earlier this month that their contracts ended immediately.
It also forced Italian oil company, ENI, to dispense with the contractors working Zubair field, being developed by the Italian company, near the Rumaila field.
Coincided political uncertainty escalation in violence, Iraqi forces are grappling with armed groups linked to al Qaeda in Fallujah and other cities of the western Anbar province, while dozens have been killed by car bombs explosions in Baghdad and Hilla, in the 18th of this month. This image comes amid deteriorating security struggle of the international oil companies to deal with the bureaucratic red tape Iraqi notorious bottlenecks faced by the infrastructure that hinder production.
Experts say the British oil company fell victim to slow down and slow decision-making process throughout the Iraqi government ministries in Baghdad with the approach of parliamentary elections in 30 of next April.
Said one of the executives in the Western oil companies that “everyone is busy election,” pointing out that “all the signatures of senior officials delayed now.”
And decreased oil production to the lowest of three million barrels per day, and this is less than the height of Iraq’s production, which amounted to 3.024 million barrels a day last April, exports were down as a result of insurgent attacks on the pipeline transportation of oil vital Kirkuk-Ceyhan, and the conflict rages for control of oil resources between Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north.
A British oil company’s decision to cancel the contracts for their employees to cast a pall on the Rumaila field, which is one of the biggest projects that obtained by the company. Under the agreement, as the British company signed with Baghdad in 2009, obliges the company to raise its production in the field to 2.085 million barrels per day, and what’s currently produced 1.4 million barrels per day. The press release says the Wall Street Journal that the British oil company has many plans to develop the giant Rumaila field, and is one of the crown of pearls British oil company and the backbone of the Iraqi oil industry. The British company plans to increase its output by a large margin over the coming years.
The fate of the second phase of the Rumaila field symbolizes the crisis raises troubling questions about the future of the Rumaila field, along with the future of the oil industry in the country.
According to the administrative procedures cumbersome to work in Iraq, the British company and its partners in the group Rumaila operating illusion Company CNBC Chinese government and the South Oil Company of the Iraqi state should send all contracts of high wages related to the project to the Iraqi Oil Ministry for approval.
Moreover, in all contracts in excess of $ 20 million must be submitted to the joint administrative committee comprising representatives of the British company and the Chinese company and the South Oil Company. In 2011, resigned as Chairman of the Committee, an Iraqi, Vttlapt process replaced 6 months. In all this time did not get the British company to ratify any contract of large contracts.
alaalem.com
