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MOSCOW, Dec 12: Iraq has pulled out of a massive contract with three Russian companies to drill in one of its oilfields, in a snub being seen as aimed at putting political pressure on Moscow, the giant LUKoil company said Thursday.
LUKoil said Baghdad had broken a multi-billion-dollar contract signed by it and two other firms to drill in the West-Kurna-2 field, in the south of the country, Interfax news agency said.
In addition to LUKoil, the other firms affected are Zarubejneft and Machinoimport.
LUKoil spokesman Alexander Vassilenko described the move, which he said was notified in a letter signed by Iraq’s deputy energy minister, as “petty blackmail”.
Russian experts said the cancellation was aimed at pressuring Russia — which has long had major interests in Iraq — into standing up to the United States by opposing its plans for an invasion of Iraq.
The decision is a major blow to Russian oil firms, which have always been favoured by Iraq over Western companies in exploration and drilling operations.
LUKoil head Vaguit Alekperov, whose company is the world’s third-largest oil group in terms of reserves, appealed to Russian authorities to contest the Iraqi move with officials in Baghdad.
“We have not failed to meet the contract terms and we are going to assert our rights in conformity with international law,” added Vassilenko.
“It appears that we are under the protection of the Russian state and that the appropriate bodies will do everything to confront this unjust move.”
The West Kurna field is estimated to contain reserves of some 7.3 billion barrels of crude oil.
Iraq is the country with the second largest known oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.
WMD DECLARATION: Russia was the first of the five permanent Security Council members to make detailed comments to the UN weapons inspectors on Iraq’s arms declaration, diplomats said on Thursday.
Chief inspector Hans Blix had asked the five to comment on the 12,000-page declaration by Friday so his team could work on its over the weekend so as to produce a sanitized “working document” for the other 10 council members.
British and French diplomats said separately that they planned to meet Blix’s deadline, and did not exclude the possibility of handing in comments by Thursday evening.
The United States took possession of the declaration three hours after it arrived at Blix’s office on Sunday and made copies for the four other permanent council members, which also include China.
The UN said the five nuclear powers would expunge any sensitive information that could be used by another country to make nuclear, biological or chemical weapons in violation of international non-proliferation treaties.
Russian sources said comments and proposals received from Moscow were the result of “inter-agency analysis” and covered all aspects of the Iraqi declaration.
On Tuesday, Blix said after lunching with all 15 Security Council members that he expected to share his “preliminary assessment of the substance” of the declaration with them on Dec 19.—AFP
