“The strategic interest of the United States is in new oil supplies arriving on the world market, to lower prices,” Mr. Kuzyaev said.
“It is not important that we did not take part in the coalition,” he said, referring to the military operations in Iraq. “For America, the important thing is open access to reserves. And that is what is happening in Iraq.”
This is an area of Iraq reconstruction that everyone is watching. Because every drop of oil that can be extracted out of the ground in Iraq, will only help to feed a very hungry global oil market.
The article below also made a key point which is worth mentioning again. US companies will definitely play a crucial part in building and maintaining oil infrastructure and drilling in Iraq. Although it would have been nice for the US and it’s coalition partners to have even more of a share of oil contracts there, but politically speaking, it just wasn’t in the cards.
Probably the biggest point to mention here is how much money American companies stand to make with their oil services contracts:
“Iraq is a huge opportunity for contractors,” Alex Munton, a Middle East analyst for Wood Mackenzie, a research and consulting firm based in Edinburgh, said by telephone.
Mr. Munton estimated that about half of the $150 billion the international majors are expected to invest at Iraqi oil fields over the next decade would go to drilling subcontractors — most of it to the big four operators, which all have ties to the Texas oil industry.
And with that kind of money and company presence in Iraq, security will be very important in these post war years. Companies like Edinburgh International are already in the mix for energy security work in Iraq, and I expect to see more of that. –Matt
In Rebuilding Iraq’s Oil Industry, U.S. Subcontractors Hold Sway
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
June 16, 2011
When Iraq auctioned rights to rebuild and expand its oil industry two years ago, the Russian company Lukoil won a hefty portion — a field holding about 10 percent of Iraq’s known oil reserves.
It seemed a geopolitical victory for Lukoil. And because only one of the 11 fields that the Iraqis auctioned off went to an American oil company — Exxon Mobil — it also seemed as if few petroleum benefits would flow to the country that took the lead role in the war, the United States.
The auction’s outcome helped defuse criticism in the Arab world that the United States had invaded Iraq for its oil. “No one, even the United States, can steal the oil,” the Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said at the time.
But American companies can, apparently, drill for the oil.
In fact, American drilling companies stand to make tens of billions of dollars from the new petroleum activity in Iraq long before any of the oil producers start seeing any returns on their investments.
Lukoil and many of the other international oil companies that won fields in the auction are now subcontracting mostly with the four largely American oil services companies that are global leaders in their field: Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International and Schlumberger. Those four have won the largest portion of the subcontracts to drill for oil, build wells and refurbish old equipment.
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