BP is interested in working on a range of oil and gas projects in Iraq, but is waiting for the country's parliament to pass an oil law and for security to improve before increasing its role, a senior BP executive said today.
International companies have been jostling for position as they look for a potentially lucrative stake in Iraq's oil future. The country holds the world's third largest oil reserves and needs billions of dollars of investment to boost output and overhaul ageing infrastructure.
"Eventually where we get involved will be up to Iraq," Steve Peacock, president of BP's Middle East and South Asia Exploration and Production unit, told reporters at an energy conference in Dubai.
"But I think we can help in all areas: enhanced oil recovery from existing fields, in discovered and not developed fields, or in exploration."
A draft oil law that Iraq's cabinet endorsed in February is awaiting parliament's ratification.
Peacock said it would take some time after the law is passed for contracts to be negotiated and for BP to send people to work in Iraq because of the security situation in the country.
"Physical security on the ground... may be the thing that takes the longest," he said.
BP would also wait for assurance that any contracts would survive changes in government, he said.
BP has been providing assistance to Iraq's oil company in the south around the Rumaila field, he said. The North and South Rumaila fields are already partially developed and have combined potential output capacity of 500,000 barrels per day.
BP would not look at involvement in Iraq's Kurdish region in the north until the oil law had been passed, even though security in the region is better than elsewhere in the country, he said.
The United Arab Emirates' Dana Gas said on Sunday it had signed agreements with the Kurdish regional government to study development of its gas reserves.