Iraq signs $3B oil deal with China

IndigoMoon

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq has signed its first major oil deal with a foreign company since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry said Saturday.

Iraq's oil fields currently produce around 2.5 million barrels a day.

It was the first time in more than 35 years that Iraq has allowed foreign oil companies to do business inside its borders.

The contract with the China National Petroleum Corporation could be worth up to $3 billion. It would allow the CNPC to develop an oil field in southern Iraq's Wasit province for about 20 years, said Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad.

Iraq's Cabinet must still approve the contract, but Jihad said that would happen soon, and work could start within a few months.

The Chinese company will provide technical advisers, oil workers and equipment to develop the al-Ahdab oil field, providing fuel for the al-Zubaidiya power plant in Wasit, southeast of Baghdad, bordering Iran, Jihad said.

Once development begins, the field is expected to start producing a preliminary amount of 25,000 barrels of oil a day and an estimated constant daily amount of 125,000 barrels after three years, he said.

Iraq currently produces about 2.5 million barrels a day, 2 million of which are exported daily, Jihad said. That is close to its status before the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam in 2003, but below its levels prior to the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

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KevO · Expert Joined: May 24, 2005 Posts: 2358

errrm. I don't get it. I thought the US of A and the U of K 'liberated' Iraq. What did China do?
so for what are US troops dying like ants? could someone please clarify
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coyote

A friend of mine has maintained that "we didn't go into Iraq for oil, because that wouldn't make any sense."

But it doesn't make any sense simply because our political leaders are dangerously insane morons with a dangerously unrealistic world view and a lust for power and wealth.

I really think there isn't anything more to it than that.
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miles392

Well if it their main purpose for invading Iraq Iraq was giving the oil contracts to American companies then this must be a huge setback.

IndigoMoon

Isn't China capable of refining the heavier oil? Maybe that is what they contracted for. One can hope.
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GASMON

nobodypanic · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 02, 2008 Posts: 472

the PRC gets a bone to shut up and let us bomb iran into the stone age.

Jack_Curmudgeon · Coal Joined: Aug 30, 2008 Posts: 6

mos6507

jamaal · Coal Joined: Aug 24, 2008 Posts: 10

You can bet the US got something out of it- maybe financial, or some other kind of deal. But the whole prospect of lots of chinese workers running around iraq would not have happened without the US saying yes- just on security grounds alone.

At our level we don't see the link, but this was not given away.

KevO · Expert Joined: May 24, 2005 Posts: 2358