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The long-awaited party is over and now the real work is about to start. This is when the winners start going over the nitty-gritty of the model contract to try and tie loose ends in a bid to pull the extra mile out of a service contract. But at the end of the day, a service contract is a service contract. There is only so much one can adjust and modify to make it work for the best of one’s interest in the most challenging circumstances yet to come. Nothing new here compared to what companies do elsewhere.

At the other end, as Iraq starts counting its dollars and barrels, it has to face up to its own challenges lying ahead. True, it has succeeded in attracting the investments it desperately needs and got more than it had originally bargained for. Huge oil fields put on the market almost 15 years ago and courted since by a multitude of companies, are finally set to put Iraq – in principle – back on the world energy map as foreign oil expertise is set to make its way into Iraq in numbers unknown since nationalization in the mid-1970’s.

Three world majors; BP, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, leading the way with a dozen other companies, is no small feat after long years of isolation and deprivation. “Finally we’re on the world energy map, we can’t be marginalized any more”, say my interlocutors in the Iraqi oil sector in Baghdad.

That’s true, but only if the objectives are well defined and the long term national plan takes precedence over short term electioneering and party politics.

The question that Iraq should be asking itself now is not whether the bid rounds have been a success or not, but rather how to make them deliver to the best interest of the country. Bid rounds were not organized for the sake of the televised party. They are meant to deliver what Iraq needs. That’s why now is the time to try to answer some fundamental questions:

- What future for the national oil operators? With 10 fields operated – albeit under joint management – by foreign oil companies and very little left for the national operators, what’s next?

- How to coordinate the expansion and financing of the infrastructure needed to cater for the new oil power that will become Iraq?

- What leverage has Iraq got with its fellow Opec members to orchestrate its return to the top table of the producers club.

Planning and delivering on the plans is a more difficult party to organize than two televised bidding ceremonies full of fanfare.

Who will be operating where in Iraq in 2010

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Please click here to go to the Press TV program on Iraqi Oil: The 1^st & 2^nd bid rounds, which was shown on 16^th December 2009.

Ruba Husari is an expert on Middle East energy and editor of Iraq Oil Forum , a specialized website on Iraq’s oil industry and politics. She is based in Baghdad. Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views.

Editor's Note: This article was first posted on The Iraqui Oil Forum, on Dec 16, 2009 . Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.

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Who will be operating where in Iraq in 2010

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