Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki said his government would tackle logistical and other obstacles
facing international oil firms working in Iraq, saying his country desperately
needs to boost oil revenues to meet its massive infrastructure-investment
needs.
In his first interview since the Parliament confirmed his new cabinet this
month, Mr. Maliki acknowledged that oil companies have been facing delays in
getting necessary equipment into Iraq because of backlogs at the airport
and the main border entry points in the southern oil hub of Basra.
But he said he was getting involved to resolve the issues, which oil executives
have been complaining about for months.
Mr. Maliki, whose previous government opened the way to the current spate of
foreign-led, oil-field redevelopment work centered in southern Iraq, said his new government would be
equally welcoming to international petroleum firms. "We have no
restrictions on their entry. We want them," Mr. Maliki said, referring to
foreign oil companies and services firms. "We need speed. We need
money."
While Iraq is home to one of the world's
richest deposits of oil, it has struggled to fully exploit that wealth over
years of war, sanctions and underinvestment. Iraqi oil production has been
stuck at some 2.5 million barrels a day, about its level before the 2003
U.S.-led invasion.
Baghdad aims to lift output to 12 million barrels a day in less than a decade,
and last year, Mr. Maliki's government green-lighted a handful of international
consortia to boost output at some of the country's biggest fields. But
companies at work in the south are already complaining about big
bottlenecks--including capacity limitations at a big Iraqi port near Basra, and bureaucratic
red tape that slows the import of equipment and issuance of visas to staff
members.
Mr. Maliki said he was meeting this week with senior security officials to
tackle logistical bottlenecks and find other ways for firms to bring in
equipment.
Oil sales account for more than 90% of Iraq's revenues. Mr. Maliki said Iraq needed to plug an expected 14.3
trillion dinar [about $12.2 billion] gap in next year's 93 trillion dinar
budget. He predicted that the country's cash-flow problems would ease by
September when one of four new floating oil-export terminals currently under
construction in Basra
would become operational.
Mr. Maliki said the four terminals would handle 3.6 million barrels a day in
all, more than doubling Iraq's export capacity.
Separately, he said work would start soon on an agreement to build an oil
pipeline from Northern Iraq to the Syrian port city of Baniyas. The line would
be able to pump 2.6 million barrels a day when finished.
Mr. Maliki said he was determined to shield the country's oil sector, and
foreign investors, from political interference.
Mr. Maliki cobbled together an unwieldy coalition of politicians, some of whom have
been skeptical of a foreign role in the oil sector. "The government will
have a single message," he said. "Whoever has a different message
should leave the government and join the opposition."
He dismissed a recent fatwa, or religious edict, by anti-American cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr prohibiting his followers from working with foreign oil
companies.
"What kind of Islam prohibits this?" said Mr. Maliki. "These are
not security or occupation companies," he added. "These are oil
companies that have come in accordance to open tenders and won oil contracts,
and they are most welcome."