BASRA, Iraq/BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – Just weeks ago, U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil looked poised to move ahead with a $53 billion project to boost Iraq’s oil output at its southern fields, a milestone in the company’s ambitions to expand in the country.
But now a combination of contractual wrangling and security concerns, heightened by escalating tensions between Iraq’s bigger neighbour Iran and the United States, has conspired to hold back a deal, according to Iraqi government officials.
The negotiations have been stymied by terms of the contract that Baghdad objects to, said four Iraqi officials involved in the discussions who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The main sticking point, they said, was the means by which Exxon proposed to recoup its development costs, with the company aiming to share the oil produced by two fields – something Iraq opposes, saying it encroaches on state ownership of production.
One of the Iraqi negotiators said Baghdad would not sign anything with the current terms proposed by Exxon.
ExxonMobil declined to comment on the terms of the contract or the negotiations, with a spokeswoman in Texas saying: “As a matter of practice, we don’t comment on commercial discussions.”
The deputy oil minister for upstream affairs, Fayadh Nema, said on Wednesday that talks were ongoing and he expected a deal soon.
Iraq is the second-largest oil exporter in OPEC and has long-term aims to boost output curtailed by decades of war and sanctions. Such projects are among the most valuable prizes in the world for international oil companies.
An initial agreement would be a boost for Exxon’s plans to expand in Iraq. Under the deal, it would build a water treatment facility and pipelines needed to boost oil output capacity. It would also get the rights to develop at least two southern oilfields – Nahr Bin Umar and Artawi.
In May, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the deal with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi twice in three days, during a telephone call and a surprise visit to Baghdad, a separate Iraqi government official told Reuters.
Mahdi said last month that Iraq was close to signing the $53 billion, 30-year energy agreement with project leader Exxon and its partner for the deal, PetroChina.
But the officials who shared details with Reuters over the proposals from the American oil major said there were differences between the two parties that could prevent even a preliminary agreement anytime soon.
Exxon has proposed a production-sharing agreement whereby it recoups its development costs by sharing the output of the Nahr Bin Umar and Artawi fields with the government.
However Iraq has largely opposed such contracts and over the past decade has favoured so-called service contracts where companies are paid at a fixed dollar-per-barrel rate.
“We told them that we totally reject any production-sharing mechanism as it contradicts government energy policy,” said an official who is part of the negotiating team.
The official added it was too early to say what kind of contract Iraq would favour. The country has also in the past struck infrastructure deals with investment contracts where companies take a slice of profits.
Another official involved in the talks said Exxon’s production-sharing model included a proposal to sell some Iraqi crude itself, rather then through the state oil marketer SOMO, a plan the government strongly rejected.
