A consortium led by Italian energy giant Eni SpA (E) Monday signed an initial 20-year agreement with Iraq to develop the giant Zubair oilfield in southern Iraq, an Iraqi oil ministry official said.
A consortium led by Italian energy giant Eni SpA (E) Monday signed an
initial 20-year agreement with Iraq to develop the giant Zubair oilfield in
southern Iraq, an Iraqi oil ministry official said.
The agreement, which was signed in the oil ministry in Baghdad, will be sent to the Iraqi Council of
Ministers for approval before being a final deal that can be signed, the
official told Dow Jones Newswires.
Under the terms of the deal, Eni, Italy's biggest energy company by market value,
and its partners Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and Korea Gas Corp. (036460.SE) of South Korea
will be paid $2 for each extra barrel of oil it extracts on top of current
production at the field, but will be liable for a 35% tax on its profits.
Eni has said the development of the field would require investments of about
$10 billion in the first six years to raise output from the field to 1.125
million barrels a day from 195,000 barrels of oil a day now.
However, Iraq's
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, who was present at the signing, said
Monday the field, in total and along the duration of the contract, would
require an investment of $20 billion.
According to the contract, Eni and its partners would pay the ministry $300
million as a refundable five-year loan instead of paying a signature bonus.
The initial agreement was signed by representatives from Eni, Occidental
Petroleum and Kogas and by Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, the deputy head of the Iraqi
oil ministry's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate.
Iraq originally offered
eight oil and gas fields to foreign energy companies at an auction in June, but
only the U.K.'s BP PLC (BP)
and China's CNPC reached
agreement with Baghdad
at the time.
The U.K. giant will sign a
final deal for Rumaila, Iraq's largest oil field, on
Tuesday.
Shahristani also said three consortia had accepted the ministry's fee of $1.90
a barrel to develop the giant West Quran-1 oilfield which was not awarded in
the first auction held in Baghdad
last June.
Already, competition is hotting up for rights to develop West Qurna-1 after three
consortia out of four original bidders submitted revised offers for the giant
field in southern Iraq, Shahristani said.
Of the original four separate consortia led by Russia's
oil giant Lukoil (LKOH.RS) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) of the U.S. have
submitted revised offers. But it is not clear whether the third offer comes
from the consortia led by France's
Total SA (TOT) or China's
CNPC.
"We will announce some more details [about West Quran-1] in few
days",the minister said
Iraq
is also negotiating Nassiriyah oil field with a Japanese consortium led by
Nippon Corp. We are finalizing [contract] details with Nippon,
he added.
Iraq
is also planning to auction 10 groups of oil and gas field on Dec. 11 and 12
this year.
Διαβάστε ακόμα
Τετ, 16 Οκτωβρίου 2024 - 20:09
Τετ, 16 Οκτωβρίου 2024 - 20:06
Τρι, 15 Οκτωβρίου 2024 - 17:24
Τρι, 15 Οκτωβρίου 2024 - 17:21
Δευ, 14 Οκτωβρίου 2024 - 18:15