Oil deal would give China a 20-year supply of Iraqi crude
BAGHDAD — Iraq is expected to confirm within days a major energy deal with China that marks a change in the terms reached with the former regime of Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry was to confirm the Chinese deal in early
September. The ministry has also been negotiating technical service
contracts with Western oil companies, Middle East Newsline reported.
The two countries signed a 20-year agreement estimated at $3 billion for
the Iraqi supply of crude oil to China.
The agreement, signed in late April,
stipulated the production of up to 125,000 barrels of oil per day in Iraq by
the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.
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In the first stage,
production at the Ahdab field in the Wasit province was set at 25,000
barrels of oil a day.
Officials said the accord marked a revision of a 1997 deal reached with
China by the former Saddam Hussein regime.
That agreement called for China
to share in the oil revenues. The latest agreement stipulated that Baghdad
would pay China directly for its services.
