RE: RE: ... More is to Come Chevron Secures Major Deal in Kurdistan, But More is to Come
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RUDAW EXCLUSIVE:
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -- Chevron’s acquisition of Reliance is part of a new wave of major oil and gas deals with Erbil and with these developments Baghdad policy of deterring Oil and gas investments in Kurdistan has ended for good.
Reliable sources (from diplomatic, political and industry circles), who prefer to remain anonymous, have confirmed to Rudaw that several top league international oil companies are following ExxonMobil and have signed or are about to sign big new contracts with Kurdistan.
In addition to the Chevron deal, which was announced by the US company today, new deals are in the pipeline with the French company Total; a Russian state controlled company; and possibly the Norwegian company Statoil. Both Total and the Russian company are believed to have some other investments in the south of Iraq under contracts signed with Baghdad, but Statoil has already pulled out of a big oil field in Basra due to poor contracting conditions and have said they prefer to work in Kurdistan instead.
The Chevron deal involves the acquisition of the Kurdistan operated assets of the Indian Reliance Company, plus possibly the acquisition of many other unnamed interests from the KRG, as Chevron, just like ExxonMobil, sees itself becoming a large player in the Region. The details of the Total deal are still secretly guarded, but Rudaw’s well-informed industry sources are pointing to an agreement between Total and Marathon of the US, which has four contracts in the Region.
The Russian state controlled company comes as a big surprise, and its deal involves a direct contract with the KRG for KRG’s remaining share of interest in the blocks operated by Western Zagros.
These developments come soon after the recent decision of the Turkish authorities to grant permits for an oil and products trade with KRG, and the import of natural gas by the Siyahkalem company for power generation in Turkey. The gas import will be at 700 million cubic meters initially starting in the year 2014, which will gradually increased up to 3.2 billion cubic meters.
According to the Rudaw sources close to Ankara decision makers, the scale of Turkish involvement in the KRG energy sector is gradually becoming clearer. These sources point to the existence of a major exploration deal between a Turkish state owned company and the KRG. It is understood that KRG has already agreed to award several contracts and approved other contractual partnerships in favour of an unnamed Turkish state company. Rudaw believes that TPIC is the main players in the deal.
Potentially, this Turkish - KRG deal could be far larger than the deal forged late last year with ExxonMobil. These TPIC contracts point to a well-planned Turkish strategic policy shift towards the KRG to underpin its own energy security by accessing the large resources so close to its own borders, and to cement Ankara’s rapidly developing and growing economical and political ties with Erbil.
For sure, KRG has now become potentially a big energy player in the region. Critics and doubters may be silenced by these latest KRG achievements, as these appear to vindicate KRG’s consistent and determined contracting and investment policies.
These new waves of major contracts, are likely to embarrass the anti-KRG oil policy makers in Baghdad who will struggle to explain the IOC’s vote of confidence in Kurdistan. A senior oil executive told Rudaw: “They will now realize that their tactics to deter investments from Kurdistan have totally failed, the KRG oil policy is here to stay, and to put it simply Erbil has won, and Baghdad oil policy makers have lost the argument.”