Page 11 - MEOG Week 27 2022

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

MoO clarifies on services firms

as court voids KRG contracts

IRAQ FOLLOWING reports last week, Iraq’s Min- Canadian firm Western Zagros and US-based
istry of Oil (MoO) confirmed that it has been HKN.
informed of US services firms’ intention not to These companies, alongside Addax, Gulf
engage in contract with the Kurdistan Regional Keystone Petroleum and Shamaran Petroleum,
Government (KRG). were summoned to a court date by the MoO in
The ministry said that it “affirmed that May.
Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton, The latest move followed the decision by
which are which are among the reputable inter- Judge Mohammed Ali Mahmoud Nadeem that
national companies in the field of oil services, the MoO’s court case against IOCs active in
and according to their official letters to the Min- Kurdistan could proceed despite the MNR filing
istry, have confirmed they would refrain from a lawsuit against federal oil sector officials at the
entering into new projects [in the] Kurdistan Court of Criminal Investigation in Erbil.
region, complying with the Federal Supreme
Court ruling and the directives of the Steering Khor Mor update
Committee in the Ministry of Oil”. Meanwhile, despite reports that recent attacks
It continued by saying that these companies had derailed expansion efforts at Kurdistan’s
are now “in the process of winding up and ter- Khor Mor gas field, the project’s developers said
minating the existing tenders and contracts”. that it is proceeding towards completion.
Under their pledge to Baghdad, they have com- Speaking during an online event organised
mitted not to own any commercial entities in by Columbia University, Mohammad Makkawi,
the Kurdistan region, complying with the Feb- managing director of Kurdistan operations for
ruary decision by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court, the Crescent Petroleum joint venture said that no
which declared that the KRG’s independent damage had been done. “It is business as usual
development of the oil and gas industry was … The security forces have identified the party
‘unconstitutional’. behind it and are in communication with the
Meanwhile, the Karkh Commercial Court authorities to stop these childish acts. The oper-
in Baghdad this week moved to annul oil con- ations never stopped,” he said.
tracts between IOCs and the KRG’s Ministry of The KM250 project aims to increase capacity
Natural Resources. Senior MoO officials were at the field from 450mn cubic feet (12.7mn cubic
quoted as saying that the court had taken action metres) per day to 700 mmcf (20 mcm) per day
against UK-based Genel Energy, Norway’s DNO, by May 2023.™

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