Tracking al-Shahristani Plan: Iraq Oil Contract Status

It seems worth keeping a regular eye on Dr al-Shahristani's is-he-crazy-or-a-genius plan to develop a sizeable fraction of Iraq's oil reserves all in parallel. Therefore, I've updated the table from my original post with the contract status in each case, and will maintain this periodically in future. Dates that were anticipated are in italics if either they are still in the future, or I haven't been able to confirm yet that they actually happened.

Overall, the final contract negotiation and signing process seems to have gone pretty smoothly and rapidly.



Update 1/22/09 Majnoon, Zubair, and Garraf have all definitely reached the stage of signed final contract.

Update 1/28/09 Halfaya contract signed, as well as Qaiyarah and Najmah, and West Qurna 1.

We are down to only three fields awaiting final contracts, and Iraq Oil Report says two of them are in the pipeline:

BAGHDAD - Iraq has reached a deal with the remaining foreign oil companies awarded development deals in a December auction that held out on the terms.

Sabah Shabeeb al-Sa'idi, chief of the legal department in the Iraqi Oil Ministry's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, said a consortium led by the Chinese National Petroleum Corp. has agreed to the terms for Halfaya; Lukoil for West Qurna Phase 2; and Gazprom for Badra.

Al-Ahdab (115kbd) is the only one were I can't find reference to final contract agreement yet.

There is one report of a lawsuit by an Iraqi member of parliament questioning the legality of the deals:

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- An Iraqi member of parliament is attempting to derail oil major BP PLC's (BP) development of the Iraqi Rumaila oil field by seeking legal action against the country's prime minister and oil minister on grounds that the deal wasn't properly approved by parliament under Iraq's constitution, the Telegraph reported.

The court is due to hear independent MP Shatha al Musawi's case on Feb. 1, with Mrs. Al Musawi arguing that the BP contract violated the constitution on four counts. The government contests the allegations and is trying to get the case thrown out, insisting that its actions were lawful, the newspaper reports.

If successful, al Musawi's case could set a legal precedent that would invalidate all the agreements that Iraq has secured last year

There was always a potential for this sort of trouble since parliament failed to pass an oil law, and then the oil ministry went ahead anyway under its own authority.

Field(s)	Plateau (mbd)	Co.	Resv (gb)	Depletion	Fee ($/b)	Cabinet	Final Contract	Links
Rumaila	2.85	BP, CNPC	17	6.1%	$2.00	Approved	11/15/09	1, 2
West Qurna Ph I	2.33	Exxon, Shell	8.7	9.8%	$1.90		1/25/10	1, 2, 3, 4
West Qurna Ph II	1.8	Lukoil, Statoil	13	5.1%	$1.15		1/28/10	1, 2
Majnoon	1.8	Shell, Petronas	12.6	5.2%	$1.39	Approved	1/17/10	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Halfaya	0.535	CNPC, Total, Petronas	4.1	4.8%	$1.40		1/28/10	1, 2, 3, 4
Zubair	1.125	ENI, Kogas, Occidental	6.6	6.2%	$2.00		1/22/10	1, 2, 3, 4
Gharaf	0.23	Petronas, Japex	0.86	9.8%	$1.49	Approved	1/18/10	1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Badra	0.17	Gazprom, Petronas, Kogas	0.8	7.8%	$5.50		1/28/10	1, 2, 3, 4
Al-Ahdab	0.115	CNPC	N/A	N/A	$3			1
Qaiyarah	0.12	Sonangol	0.8	5.5%	$5.00	Approved	1/27/10	1, 2, 3, 4
Najmah	0.11	Sonangol	0.9	4.5%	$6.00	Approved	1/27/10	1, 2, 3, 4
Total	11.185		65.36

If I'm missing any significant developments, let me know in comments.