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India, Iraq seal deal
BAGHDAD - Iraq and India have signed a
cooperation agreement aimed at increasing bilateral
economic ties, especially in the area of oil, the two
sides announced after a meeting of an Iraqi-Indian
commission in Baghdad this week. The accord was signed
by Iraqi oil minister Amer Mohammed Rashid and his
Indian counterpart, Ram Naik, after two days of
meetings.
Under the agreement, India will supply
Iraq with medicine, wheat, rice, railway equipment and
turbines for electricity generations. Rashid said that
Iraq, India and Algeria were about to start exploring
and drilling the southern Tuba oil field in Iraq.
India's Oil Natural Gas Corporation Limited
(ONGC), which is to operate in Tuba field, has opened
offices in Baghdad and is in negotiations with the
Algerian Sonatrach company, along with India's Reliance
Petroleum to secure the oil field in Iraq for the
production of crude.
Iraq has been awarding
Indian companies contracts under the United Nations
oil-for-food program in return for India's diplomatic
support at the UN. The program allows Iraq to bypass
sanctions imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and
sell oil on condition that the revenue is spent on food
and humanitarian goods. The trade volume between the
countries has reached about US$1.53 billion under the
oil-for-food deal.
After meeting with Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein on Saturday, Naik said that
India opposed the sanctions on Iraq, and called for them
to be ended immediately. In turn, Rashid described India
as a "strategic partner".
"We have entered new
projects in railways, oil and gas, health and industry
in addition to technical cooperation and this will give
a boost to the economic relations of the two countries,
which in consequence will be reflected on the volume of
trade exchange," Rasheed was quoted as saying in Iraq
newspapers.
The Tuba oil field between Zubair
and Rumaila in the south of the country was being
developed by Iraq until the 1991 Gulf War, when storage
facilities were destroyed. ONGC is awaiting approval
from its board to invest approximately $63 million in
Iraq.
India, which imports more than two-thirds
of the crude oil it requires for 17 refineries that
process 2.3 million barrels per day, is seeking oil
areas abroad because domestic output has leveled out.
Last month it took over a concession in Sudan
from Canadian oil company Talisman (see India
over a barrel for Sudan oil venture in Asia Times
Online, July 4).
At the previous meeting of the
Iraqi-Indian commission in 2000, India agreed to help
Iraq modernize its oil installations and India's ONGC
signed a contract for an exploration block in Iraq.
(Asia Times Online)
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India over a barrel for Sudan oil
venture 
