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| volume 8, issue #9 - Thursday, May 01, 2003 | |
15-04-03 Several Indo-Iraq contracts that were being negotiated for the last one year, particularly in the oil and railway sector, may now be put on hold after the fall of President Saddam Hussein’s regime, diplomats said. Petroleum minister Ram Naik visited Baghdad last July and signed agreements on oil exploration and related business. The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) was to open an office in Baghdad and was waiting for the green signal from its board to invest approximately $ 63 mm in Iraq. Erstwhile minister of state for railways Digvijay Singh had visited Baghdad in January last year to finalise a deal for building a state-of-the-art sky bus network in Baghdad and a 250 km railway line from Baghdad to Mushaba. The fate of the two turnkey projects worth about $ 2.7 bn to be executed by the Konkan railway corporation ltd (KRCL) and Rites, the construction wing of the Indian railways, now hangs in balance. Source: Indian Express Newspapers Ltd.
Future of Indian contracts in Iraq in doubt after war
While Indian companies are hoping for a major share of new contracts in the construction and services industry under the emerging US-supervised dispensation in Baghdad, doubts are being cast over the older deals, they said.
The then Iraqi oil minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed was considering granting ONGC oil concession in southern Iraq. India was seen as a strategic partner by Iraq and bilateral trade under the oil-for-food deal with the UN had reached $ 1 bn. More contracts in railways, oil and gas,health, industry and technical cooperation were being negotiated. Under the agreement signed during Mr Naik’s visit, India was to export to Iraq medicine, wheat, rice, railway equipment and turbines for power generation. A trilateral contract among India, Iraq and Algeria was being finalised for exploring and drilling the tuba oil field between Zubair and Rumaila in the South.
Several Indian construction companies like Ansals have done extensive civil works in several Iraqi towns and the Indian Railways had given its expertise to developing the Iraqi rail network.
