APS Diplomat Operations in Oil Diplomacy articles from February 2008

APS Diplomat Operations in Oil Diplomacy archives from February 2008

Focusing On The Non-Oil Sector - Part 24 - Iraqi Oil Deals Vs Kurdish EPSAs.
February 11, 2008... It seems it will take another number of years before Iraq can focus properly on the non-oil parts of its economy. The country's under-performing petroleum industry - hampered by years of Ba'thist incompetence, war, the aftermath of the US...

Draft Law Will Apply For TSAs.(technical support agreements )
February 11, 2008... According to Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, the draft law held up by disputes in parliament will be used, whether it is passed or not, to encourage foreign participation in the industry and raise levels of crude oil production. Thus the...

Resource Nationalism.
February 11, 2008... Despite US control over Iraq since 2003, resource nationalism in this country is strong dates back to the late 1950s, after the Hashemite monarchy was topped in 1958 by Gen. Abdul-Karim Qassem who at the time was under pressure from the wave of...

Russia Writing Off Debt - LUKoil Wants A West Qurna Deal.
February 11, 2008... While KRG President Mas'oud Barzani is firmly behind the EPSA approach in the north, defying Baghdad, his partner in Kurdistan, Jalal Talabani, is the president of Iraq and has kept his distance in the dispute between Baghdad and Erbil....

KRG Says To Continue EPSAs.
February 11, 2008... The KRG on Feb. 5 said it will continue to sign EPSAs with foreign oil companies despite the threats from Baghdad to cut crude oil exports to such firm and bar them from the TSA offerings. This poses a serious challenge to the central...

Kurdish Leverage Declining.
February 11, 2008... As a minority group, the Kurds have enjoyed disproportionate influence in Iraqi politics since the removal of Saddam's dictatorship. But now their leverage is declining, as tensions rise with Iraqi Arabs, raising the spectre of another fissure...

Botas Launches Studies For P/L To Import Gas From Iraq.
February 11, 2008... The Turkish state-owned pipeline and gas company Botas has launched feasibility studies for the Turkish segment of a planned Iraq-Turkey natural gas pipeline, to be built parallel to the existing Kirkuk-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline. Botas will...