Iraq reassures oil companies after two threatened to withdraw

These assurances comes after that two giant companies have threatened to withdraw from Iraq, due to what they said a complex bureaucracy that hinder their work in Iraq .

Minister of Oil , Abdul Karim al-Leebi said in a statement reported for " Shafaq News " that “ his ministry is keen to provide all kinds of support and cooperation for all international companies operating in Iraq, including contracting with companies within the oil licensing rounds .

He added that the ministry will work to overcome the problems and obstacles that companies may face in concerned government departments and ministries in order to speed up the achievement of the setgoals.

The Italian oil company " Eni "has threatened the Iraqi government on Tuesday that it will leave within the next two weeks if Baghdad did not sign contracts related to the development of the giant Zubair oil field south of the country .

A day earlier, there was a similar threat by British Petroleum, “BP “to withdraw from Rumaila oil field with enormous reserves by what it has said a complex bureaucracy that also hinder their work.

Laeebi said that the achieved increase in oil production and exporting it is only the result of the joint and continuous effort between the ministry and companies through committees and joint operational departments.

Laeebi speech came in a meeting with representatives of foreign companies and joint departments of oil fields and the relevant departments in the ministry.

The Minister of Oil confirmed the need to intensify meetings in order to overcome the difficulties and obstacles among the joint committees to achieve the planned goals to increase production and develop it .

The threats reflect the difficulties faced by international oil companies in Iraq in dealing with a corrupt Iraqi and bureaucratic administration, as well as bad infrastructure in a time , the security situation deteriorated .

When Iraq signed contracts in 2009 and 2010 with international energy companies to develop discovered but untapped oil fields , it had put ambitious plans to raise its production to 12 million barrels per day by 2017.

But its crumbling and destructive infrastructure as well as rampant corruption , bureaucracy and violence didn’t let the county move forward in the drawn plans and cut its forecast to between 6 to 8 million barrels per day .