Sunday, September 10, 2006

AP: Iraq's best chance to boost its languishing oil output is by working with major international companies under production-sharing agreements, Iraq's deputy prime minister said on Sunday. Barham Saleh said Iraqi leaders were nearing agreement on a long-awaited hydrocarbon law that would allow potentially huge investments by foreign companies in Iraq's oil sector. He was hopeful that oil would be a "unifying force," but conceded that wrangling continued over whether it would be controlled locally or by the central government. Saleh said he expected the law setting ground rules for managing Iraq's huge petroleum reserves to be approved in parliament by year's end. [...]