alt.politics.usa.republican

In Vienna, Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Iraq
intends to compensate these companies with crude oil rather than in
cash, the Dow Jones Newswires reported Wednesday.



From The Associated Press, 3/5/08:
/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-oil-deals,0,

Iraqi Cabinet OKs Deals With Oil Giants

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN | Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD -

Iraq's cabinet has given the green light to the Oil Ministry to sign
agreements with international oil companies to help increase the
nation's crude output, a ministry official said Wednesday.

The two-year deals, known as technical support agreements, or TSAs,
are designed to develop five producing fields to add 500,000 barrels
per day to the country's million barrels per day output.

Last December, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC, ExxonMobil Corp. and
Chevron Corp. submitted technical and financial proposals for the five
fields and received counterproposals from the Iraqi side.

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Interesting, eh?

Harry