IRAQ: The Petroleum Exploration and Production Handbook - Second Edition

Introduction

This handbook is directed towards the International Oil Companies, IOCs, who are contemplating investment in a future Iraq, post-Saddam. The approach is to describe the investment opportunities likely to become available in the upstream in the quite near future as a renewed Iraq gets back on its feet. It will describe the downstream work which will be needed before the upstream sector will be able to take advantage of the available opportunities. This downstream work will include the rehabilitation needed on pipelines particularly but also on export terminals. Much engineering work will also be needed on tank farms, refineries etc. so that the Iraqi market can be supplied with much-needed petrol, diesel and paraffin for local domestic use. Oil well fires will need to be extinguished.

Despite the opportunities described here the oil companies should be aware that the primary task for the Iraqis will be to get their country working again after the present conflict. Their attention will be focussed on the relief of distress and the provision of food and water for their people. They will be less concerned initially with talking to foreign oil men who come seeking deals. Clumsy approaches to the wrong people will cause resentment for years to come. It will not be the swiftest who win the race but the most patient.

What direction, events will take? What is to be the role of the Iraq National Oil Corporation? What form of federalism, if any, might develop in the new Iraqi state? What control might the various sub-federal institutions have on their own petroleum resources. What of any future influence of the Islamic (Sharia) Law on petroleum policy and legislation? All these matters are dealt with in this authoritative handbook.

The attractions of Iraq to the modern petroleum explorer are multi-fold provided that the sensitivities of the Iraq people can be accommodated. This will mean that any potential foreign investor in such a strategic industry as the upstream oil sector will have to tread carefully and be prepared to expend time on building personal relationships with Iraqis in the existing oil sector. Any attempts at heavy-handed domination by outsiders will jeopardise the elevated expectations of the International Oil Companies.