Iraq “Won’t Cancel ExxonMobil Deal”

[k98nights]

Posted on 12 December 2011. Tags: Exxon, ExxonMobil, KRG, Maliki, oil contracts, West Qurna

Nouri al-Maliki has said that the iraqi Government has no intention to cancel the contract with ExxonMobil to develop the West Qurna 1 oil field.

“We haven’t cancelled its contract in the south,” said Mr. Maliki in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We are looking for a way for [ExxonMobil's] other contracts in any area to be within the legal contexts, but as for cancelling its contract in the south, no.”

Maliki also said that Exxon has “frozen” its controversial contract with the KRG, and suggested that his government was willing to find a way to ultimately make the deal work.

“It [the contract] has a legal violation, it doesn’t work unless Exxon comes back and negotiates with the Ministry of Oil in the presence of a representative of the Kurdistan region, then possible,” Mr. Maliki said. “Even Exxon I think has frozen the project, now the contract is frozen and we will try to find a formula to remedy it.”

So far, ExxonMobil has said nothing about the deal.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/12/12/iraq-wont-cancel-exxonmobil-deal/