Iraq says India a ‘strategic partner’

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Iraq says India a `strategic partner'

 

"India also has been the largest

exporter of electrical equipment to Iraq."

Reuters

 

Baghdad, July 8: Iraq said that it was edging closer to signing a

contract with India to develop the Tuba oil field in southern

Iraq. "We are on the final stage. It is a consortium between Indian

companies and Algeria's Sonatarch company and we hope to realise

this by the end of this summer," Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed

Rasheed told reporters. The Tuba 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.

 

India's ONGC Videsh and Reliance Petroleum have signed an agreement

with Algeria's Sonatarch to secure an oil field in Iraq for

production of crude. ONGC Videsh Limited, a subsidiary of ONGC, has

sought to form a venture with two other partners to produce crude

from the Tuba oil field. ONGC is awaiting approval from its board to

invest approximately $63 million in Iraq. Rasheed, who was speaking

after signing a trade and commerce agreement with Indian Petroleum

Minister Ram Naik following two days of meetings of the Indo-Iraq

joint commission, 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 added. According to Rasheed, the volume of trade between

Iraq and New Delhi under an "oil-for-food" deal with the United

Nations had reached $1,53 billion.

 

Baghdad exports oil under a UN humanitarian oil-for-food swap,

permitted as an exception to UN sanctions imposed in 1990 after

Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. At the last meeting of the commission in

2000, India agreed to help Iraq modernise its oil installations and

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) signed a contract for an

exploration block in Iraq, it said. 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 acreages abroad

because domestic output has plateaued.

 

Besides buying oil from Iraq, India also has been the largest

exporter of electrical equipment to Iraq. Of the $750 million that

Iraq spent on its electrical needs in the last three years, India

took in almost half. India also shipped wheat to Iraq last year, but

Baghdad rejected the cargoes, citing quality concerns. Several

Indian firms won contracts last year to supply 350,000 tonnes of

wheat to Iraq but New Delhi stopped exports after Baghdad rejected

three cargoes in May last year.