China oil officials due in Baghdad for Ahdab talks

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=focusoniraq&xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/March/focusoniraq_March37.xml

BAGHDAD - Oil officials from China will arrive in Baghdad on Tuesday for negotiations with Iraqi oil ministry officials over a Saddam-era contract to develop the Ahdab oilfield, an Iraqi official said on Monday.

Iraq has the world’s third largest proven oil reserves but has been hampered in developing them by decades of sanctions under Saddam Hussein and nearly four years of violence since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Cabinet approval of a draft oil law last month took Iraq a step closer to setting out the framework for foreign companies investing in Iraq’s oil industry, which will be crucial to revitalising the economy. Parliament still has to pass the law.

Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters in an interview that Oil Minister Hussein Al Shahristani met China’s new ambassador to Baghdad on Monday to discuss a planned visit by President Jalal Talabani and the oil minister to China this month to discuss oil and other economic cooperation.

[Eurobabe]

1. So they (Iraq) are going to use the oil revenues to

pay off the war costs, right? :sarcasm: