French oil companies pledge to help Iraqi counterparts

Major French oil companies are pledging to help their Iraqi counterparts with high-tech solutions to increase the amount of recoverable oil from existing fields and improve the quality of refined products. Spurred by their country's support for Iraq in its fight against UN trade sanctions, French oil companies are confident about business prospects that will be available to them once the sanctions imposed for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait are lifted.
The Iraqi oil industry is still recovering from damage inflicted during the 1991 Gulf War, with repairs progressing slowly under restrictions of the UN sanctions. The country's own efforts to increase production have stumbled because of a lack of spare parts and equipment.
TotalFinaElf, one of more than 100 French firms participating in the annual Baghdad International Fair, is near agreement with the Iraqis to develop two fields, one of them believed to be among the largest in the world. Combined, the two fields are estimated to hold more than 35 bn barrels of oil, more than three times the company's proven reserves to date.

In addition to striking deals, representatives from the French oil industry said they were discussing with their Iraqi partners ways to improve oil recovery from existing fields. Claude Gadelle, deputy director of the influential French Petroleum Institute, said French oil extraction technology could help Iraq increase by nearly 30 % its oil output capacity of 3.4 mm bpd. "We have developed new technologies that will make it very easy, and relatively cheap to improve recovery from wells which have been discovered and those to be discovered," he said.
Iraq sits on the world's second-largest oil reserves. Under modifications to the sanctions made over the years, the country can export as much oil as it chooses provided the proceeds are monitored by the United Nations to ensure use only for humanitarian goods, war reparations and spare parts to revamp the oil industry.
Iraq has the right to allocate $ 1.2 bn from its UN-monitored oil revenues every year to rehabilitate the oil sector. French oil executives said prospects for business even within the current limits are bright. Jean-Jacques Royant of the Oil and gas Industry French Suppliers Council said French firms have decided "to fight" to have the UN curbs on foreign investment in Iraq's oil industry removed. "We are not politicians, but we will try to fight. At our level, we will try to work out something," he said.

In a paper presented to the gathering, he introduced to Iraqis what his council can do to help them remove bottlenecks, improve contacts and gain easier access to new technologies. Royant said the French were "here to offer Iraqi counterparts new technologies to revamp refineries, improve quality of products, adopt new processes to reduce amount of waste and improve environment." "We offer to answer all your technical questions. Never hesitate to write to us," he urged the Iraqis.
Faleh al-Khayat, director-general of the Iraqi Oil Ministry's Planning and Studies Department, advised his colleagues to rely on French firms and consultancies because they can act as "a safety valve" for us. Al-Khayat said it was time the Oil Ministry adjusted to the latest technologies after more than 10 years of isolation.
Representatives of TotalFinaElf, meanwhile, said they were confident the Iraqi government won't change the preferential terms given to them to develop the Majnoon and Nahr Umar fields in the south. Company representatives said the deals just need the stroke of the pen and the company will start work once the sanctions are lifted.