Word: iraqi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...grab took another hit on Tuesday when Baghdad opened the bidding on the rights to develop its massive energy reserves. In a day-long auction of eight huge oil fields - some of the world's biggest - virtually all the 41 foreign companies invited to bid by the Iraqi government balked at the Baghdad terms. The only contract signed was a 20-year deal for a consortium led by BP and China's National Petroleum Corporation to develop the giant Rumaila field in southern Iraq. "Frankly I did not think it would be such a fiasco and embarrassment for the government...
...Despite the rich deposits on offer, energy companies were put off by the prices demanded by the Iraqi government, and continuing concerns over the security situation in the country. And their caution has dealt a blow to Baghdad's efforts to raise billions of dollars desperately needed to rebuild. (Watch a video about the gas shortage in Iraq...
...largest producer. Iraq currently pumps just 2.4 million barrels a day, because its oil facilities need huge capital upgrades. "Even if this process had gone as planned it's still not sure that the targets would be reached," says Leila Benali of the Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Still, Iraqi officials are confident that with enough international expertise and investment, their country could produce 6 million barrels a day within a decade. (See pictures of the Exxon-Valdez disaster...
Politicians back up the complaints. Says Ali Belo, chairman of the oil and gas committee of the Iraqi parliament: "Work on the field is negatively affecting their land and homes as well as the environment. The company has to either satisfy the residents by offering them jobs in, specially, guarding the facility and things like that, or expect that they won't be able to work safely...
...Ahmad Abd al-Rida al-Asadi, the head of the Ahdab field project for the North Oil Co., the Iraqi state firm in charge, calls Wasit province "very quiet." But he wants the Iraqi government to "send additional security forces because this project is very important for the Iraqi people and all eyes fall on this project because there is a foreign company for the first time working inside Iraq...