All that killing for this?

‘Iraqi oil law won’t allow foreign control’

Iraq's pending new oil law does not mention production-sharing contracts and will guarantee that 80 percent of oil reserves are managed by the Iraqi National Oil Company, the oil minister said in remarks published on Friday.

"There is no mention of production-sharing contracts," Hussain al-Shahristani told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. The state-owned Iraqi National Oil Company would control all fields other than those that are not now in production and which are a long way from production, he added.
"This means that 80 percent of discovered Iraqi reserves will be set aside for the Iraqi National (Oil) Company, and this invalidates the claim that the law will pave the way for foreign companies to control Iraqi oil," he said. Arrangements for developing the other oilfields will depend on a Federal Oil and Gas Council, he said.

International companies are eyeing Iraq's giant and largely underdeveloped oilfields. Iraq needs billions of dollars in foreign investment to boost oil output and rebuild its economy. Shahristani was quoted in India as saying that the new law should be approved in two months. "The legislation is crucial to regulating how wealth from Iraq's oil reserves will be shared between its sectarian and ethnic groups."

He said that Iraq's current production capacity ranges between 2.8 and 2.9 million barrels a day (bpd). "It is possible to boost this capacity as it is planned to 3 million barrels each day. He also said that Iraq is trying to add more units to Iraqi refineries to raise their capacity from 700,000 to 750,000 bpd to meet the increasing demand for derivatives. The energy sector is struggling to recover from years of mismanagement, sanctions and attacks against infrastructure by insurgents. Iraq has eight oil refineries, none of which was damaged during the US-led invasion in 2003.