It looks like the bribes to the central Iraqi government finally got through:
A South Korean consortium led by the Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) has secured the right to develop oil fields in a northern Kurdish-controlled area in Iraq, according to the state-run oil firm Thursday.
In a related move, Ssangyong Engineering & Construction and other local builders also struck a deal for a reconstruction project worth 10 trillion won ($10.5 billion) in the war-torn country.
Signed in Seoul between the KNOC-led consortium and the Kurdistan regional government, the latest oil deal is expected to pave the way for local firms to gain access to 1-2 billion barrels of untapped crude, an amount enough to supply the energy-poor country for up to two years.
It is the second agreement of its kind since the KNOC signed a deal last November for development of the Bazian oil field in the same region, which is estimated to have at least 500 million barrels of crude. South Korea consumes about 800 million barrels of oil per year. [Korea Times]
The ROK Army building all those toilets was definitely worth it.
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2:58 pm on February 15th, 2008 1
Put the Hateraid back in the fridge…..the Koreans fairly bidded that oil contract
12:43 am on February 16th, 2008 2
This is one hell of a dangerous contract. The Iraq government does NOT want it developed because it will place monies into the hands of the Kurds in their autonomous region. Turkey doesn’t want it developed because it wants to develop itself — as shown when it tried to sweep into the area during the initial phase of the Iraq invasion and take over the area. The Kurd rebels who specialize in attacking Turkey — want a separate region for the Kurdish people carved out of both Turkey and Iraq are also added into this mix and would like to have a say in the development — and they weren’t consulted. Then there’s Iraq who would like to stick their fingers in this pie as well.
The ROK is playing with fire…and just hope they don’t get burned — like they did in their Russian loan deal. Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
11:01 pm on March 25th, 2008 3