Iraq’s parliament has moved the questioning session of the country’s oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani from Nov. 11 to Nov. 10, an Iraqi oil ministry official and a lawmaker said Monday.
“The minister welcomes the monitoring powers of the parliament and he will be ready for questioning Tuesday instead of Wednesday,” the ministry official said.
The parliament’s oil and gas committee secretary Jaber Khalifa Jaber also confirmed the date of questioning saying that the session will be held at 1400 local time (1100 GMT) Tuesday.
Jaber told Dow Jones Newswires that Shahristani has asked the parliament to move the date to Tuesday because he’s traveling on Wednesday.
The questioning would take place despite calls from Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki not to question Shahristani; as such move would “discourage international oil companies from investing in Iraq.”
Shahristani, who faced questions in parliament in June, has been accused by lawmakers of failing to boost oil production during more than three years as oil minister.
Iraq's crude oil production hasn't reached the pre-invasion levels of 2.8 million barrels a day. The country is producing about 2.45 million barrels a day.
However, oil analysts say Shahristani's credibility has been boosted over the past few weeks after international companies started negotiating for contracts to develop oil fields.
Thursday, Shahristani signed an initial agreement with Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) to upgrade Iraq’s super-giant West Qurna-1 oil field, the third such deal signed in four days.
Tuesday, he signed a $15 billion deal with BP PLC (BP) and China National Petrolem Corp. to develop the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq. And last Monday, he signed an initial agreement with Italy's Eni SpA (E) to develop the Zuabair oil field after the company agreed to the terms laid out in the country's first post-war licensing auction in June.
If all three of these fields are developed, they have the potential to increase Iraq's crude oil output to 6 million barrels a day within six years.