(Arabian oil and gas) -- Iraq's Oil Ministry is being kept waiting by Exxon for an explanation of their decision to breach Baghdad's blacklist policy by taking up six exploration agreements with the Kurdish Regional Government.
The Ministry has so far sent four letters to Exxon asking for an explanation without response, according to a Reuters report, despite one being signed by Nouri Al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, and another by Abdul Karim al-Luaibi, the Oil Minister.
Exxon - which has not provided any public comment on the deals since they were disclosed by the KRG's Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami on 12 November - may have put its field development contract at the supergiant West Qurna phase 1 field at risk by making the deals. Baghdad says contracts signed with the KRG are void because they give oil companies a proprietary interest in the region's oil, contrary to the Iraqi constitution, something the KRG hotly disputes.
Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, head of the Oil Ministry's petroleum contracts and licensing directorate, told Dow Jones Newswires that Exxon may be replaced at West Qurna 1 by Shell, which holds a minority (15%) interest in the development contract and is the operator of the Majnoon field.
Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.