Majors like kurdistan
looks like the majors are moving into Kurdistan.
Posted on 24 July 2012. Tags: Chevron, Kurdistan, oil contract
By John Lee.
An Iraqi oil ministry statement on Tuesday said that Chevron, the second largest U.S. energy company, will be barred from contracts in central and southern Iraq as a result ofbuying stakes in two oil-exploration blocks in Iraqi Kurdistan.
“Chevron is barred from any agreement or contract with the federal ministry of oil and its companies …unless it retreats from the contract it signed in Kurdistan region,” the oil ministry statement said.
Chevron purchased 80% stakes in the Sarta and Rovi blocks in Iraqi Kurdistan from India’s Reliance Industries; Austria’s OMV holds the remaining 20 percent.
Baghdad has already blacklisted companies that maintain deals with the Kurds, excluding them from working elsewhere in Iraq. Among those is New York-based Hess, which was barred last year from competing in the fourth energy auction. Exxon Mobil was also banned from the same auction.
(Sources: Reuters, Wall Street Journal, AKnews)