Iraq, China Agree to Restore Saddam Hussein-Era Oil Deal

My Comment:

I wonder how this news is being received by Dick Cheney? The first post Saddam oil contract is awarded to the Chinese, and to a firm that is a rival to Dick's Halliburton.

Payback is a bitch.

- Rinx


Iraq, China Agree to Restore Saddam Hussein-Era Oil Deal
Associated Press
August 28, 2008 5:00 a.m.

SHANGHAI -- China and Iraq have signed a $3 billion deal revising an earlier agreement for China's biggest oil company to help develop the Ahdab oil field, according to a statement from the Iraqi Embassy in Beijing.

The deal, restoring a project canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was signed late Wednesday by Chinese officials and Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani.

The revised terms of the deal increase the anticipated output from the billion-barrel field to 110,000 barrels per day from the originally planned 90,000 barrels per day, the statement said. The contract is to run for 20 years after production begins three years from now, it said.

Saddam Hussein's regime defied United Nations sanctions that limited direct foreign dealings with Iraq's oil industry and signed a deal in 1997 with the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.

That contract, worth $1.2 billion at the time, gave a subsidiary of the Chinese company concessions to develop the field on a production-sharing basis for 22 years. The value for the renegotiated contract is $3 billion, the statement said.

The new agreement will be a service contract, under which China won't be a partner in profits and instead will be paid for its work. A spokesman for CNPC, Liu Weijiang, said Thursday that he couldn't provide any information on the deal.

Once the contract is signed, it will be the first Saddam Hussein-era oil deal to be honored by the new Iraqi government. A number of companies say they signed deals with Mr. Hussein's regime and demand that those be honored, or the countries involved be given priority on new agreements. But the Iraqi statement said that some technical services contracts with other big petroleum companies might be postponed.

The ministry has consistently denied giving any advantage to companies with which Mr. Hussein signed deals, instead insisting that oil and gas fields and exploration blocks will be offered up for bids. Iraq sits on more than 115 billion barrels of oil, but decades of wars, U.N. sanctions, violence and sabotage have battered its oil industry.

The Ahdab field is located in Shiite-dominated Wasit province, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. It has been the scene of sporadic attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

As security improves, Iraq is trying to bring in foreign companies to help increase crude output from the current 2.5 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2008, and 4.5 million barrels a day by the end of 2013.