Documents released by the Iraqi Financial Supervisory Authority show a “huge loss” of investment in the Ahdab oil field in Wasit province in the country’s southeast.
It follows from the documents that the contract formula includes clauses that could “lead to financial losses for the Iraqi Oil Ministry if it continues to invest in the manner prescribed by the contract.”
According to the documents, the Iraqi National Oil Company (SOMO) withdrew from the field along with the investor company due to high costs, which means that the operating budget will be larger than income.
According to a legal expert who spoke to RT after reviewing the contract, he explained that “the Iraqi government paid fees to a foreign company working on the field before work began, and that this contract will inflict heavy financial losses on Iraq,” as he put this is.
The field, discovered in 1979, includes large reserves of oil in addition to associated gas. Actual crude oil production began in June 2010 with a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day, and its flow rate increased to 130,000 barrels per day.
Earlier, House Integrity Committee member (previous session) Kazem Al-Shammari said in a press statement that “the Chinese company operating the Al-Ahdab oil field received $180 million from Iraqi government funds. .”
He added: “We have documents confirming corruption and tax evasion in the contract for the development of the Ahdab field, where the Chinese company Oasis, in cooperation with some powerful people in the Ministry of Petroleum and the General Tax Administration, refuses to pay the financial contributions that it owes. .”
Source: agencies + RT