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Viewing cable 09BAGHDAD530, IRAQI OIL MINISTRY NEGOTIATING UNITIZATION OF

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09BAGHDAD530 2009-03-01 16:31 2011-08-30 01:44 SECRET Embassy Baghdad
VZCZCXRO6023
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #0530/01 0601631
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 011631Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1928
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHEBAAA/USDOE WASHDC
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000530 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DOE FOR PERSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2019 
TAGS: EPET ENRG EINV ETTC PREL KU IR IZ
SUBJECT: IRAQI OIL MINISTRY NEGOTIATING UNITIZATION OF 
CROSS-BORDER FIELDS 
 
REF: A. BAGHDAD 410 
     B. BAGHDAD 388 
 
Classified By: Economic Counselor Michael Dodman, reasons 1.4(b,d) 
 
1. (U) This is a request for guidance.  See para 2. 
 
2. (C) SUMMARY: Some modest movement recently has generated 
publicity regarding the possible signing of agreements 
between Iraq and Kuwait or Iraq and Iran to develop 
cross-border oil and gas fields.  A committee formed by the 
Iraq Ministry of Oil in 2007 to consider the issue and 
develop policy proposals is continuing its work quietly in 
the background.  While we assess with a high degree of 
certainty that no/no agreements have actually been signed, 
the issue retains the potential to create bilateral tension. 
We request Department guidance on whether Western oil and gas 
companies can develop fields that Iraq shares with Iran under 
the terms of a field unitization agreement.  END SUMMARY 
 
Diplomatic Overtures 
-------------------- 
 
3. (U) Recent high-profile visits appear to have created some 
momentum on negotiations between Iraq and neighboring Iran 
and Kuwait to develop protocols and mechanisms to develop oil 
fields whose reservoirs cross national boundaries.  Although 
primarily technical in nature, exploitation of cross-border 
fields is a sensitive issue, requiring a high level of trust 
and cooperation in bilateral relations.  One pretext that 
Saddam Hussein used to invade Kuwait was an allegation of 
Kuwait's theft of oil from the giant Rumaila oil field. 
 
4. (C) Iraq seemed to be making progress on the issue with 
Kuwait (ref A) with Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister (DFM) 
Hamoud's February 4 visit to Kuwait.  Hamoud told Senior 
Advisor Gordon Gray that the two countries would employ 
experts to make recommendations on how best to share the 
resource when oil fields are ready for exploitation. 
Hamoud's visit had been preceded by Iraqi President 
Talabani's meetings in January at the Arab Economic Summit in 
Kuwait.  The media also reported Iraqi Oil Minister 
Shahristani's February 5 statement that he expected to reach 
an agreement with Iran regarding exploitation of the two 
countries' cross-border fields.  He noted, "It is 
unacceptable that neighboring countries are extracting oil 
from the shared fields while Iraq stands motionless." 
 
5. (SBU) The Iraqi MoO calculates the following distribution 
of promising cross-border fields and structures: 
 
Country           Fields        Structures 
-------           ------        ---------- 
Kuwait            2             4 
Iran              8             11 
Syria             1             7 
Saudi Arabia      0             7 
 
6. (SBU) The issue is becoming a more pressing one for Iraq, 
since several fields in the first and second bid rounds are 
shared with Iraq's neighbors.  Two of the three fields 
comprising the Maysan fields in the first bid round, Abu 
Ghirab and Fauqa, cross into Iran.  In the second bid round, 
the Siba gas field in Basrah Province straddles the Iraq-Iran 
border and, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Oil (MoO), 
Iran is currently producing from the reservoir.  The Badra 
oil field in Wasit Province, which crosses into Iran, 
presents the same problem.  Iraq is producing from the 
Majnoon oil field, but some geologists consider Majnoon and 
Iran's Azadegan to belong to the same structure, so 
unitization issues will eventually need to be resolved there. 
 Joint exploitation of the Rumaila and Zubair fields that 
cross the Iraq-Kuwait border must also be settled. 
 
Still Waters Barely Running 
QStill Waters Barely Running 
--------------------------- 
 
7. (C) The Iraqi MoO formed a Border Committee in 2007 to 
examine all fields and structures adjacent to and crossing 
Iraq's borders.  The Committee is focusing, in priority 
order, on Iran, Kuwait, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and 
Turkey.  At the same time that the Iraqi MFA is engaging 
Iraq's neighbors to form bilateral committees to consider 
exploitation of cross-border fields, the MoO is attempting to 
accelerate Iraq's own development of such fields.  Inclusion 
of the cross-border fields in the first two bid rounds was a 
deliberate decision, with structures and remaining fields 
 
BAGHDAD 00000530  002 OF 002 
 
 
possibly being included in the third bid round.  The MoO 
Legal Directorate is seeking to contract the services of an 
international law firm to develop a model unitization 
agreement to exploit the cross-border fields. 
 
8. (S) The MoO Border Committee has been examining several 
technical issues, among which are assessing the level of 
development on the non-Iraqi side of cross-border fields, 
determining which side has the structural advantage, and 
estimating cost of field development.  In addition, the 
Border Committee is considering an over-all strategy that 
would look at all fields along the Iranian border as a 
package.  The Committee believes this would prevent Iran from 
negotiating isolated deals on certain fields where it has an 
advantage in terms of cost and potential output.  The 
Committee contemplated, and then for now suspended its 
consideration of, a three-stage process.  The process would 
begin with the MoO hiring its own reservoir consulting firm, 
then agreeing with the neighboring country to hire a 
reservoir engineering firm jointly as an intermediary to 
determine total reserves, and finally to agree on the hiring 
of a joint operating company for the field. 
 
9. (S) The MoO BC especially recommended that the Badra field 
be included in the second bid round with the hope of bringing 
the Iranians to the table.  Little to no development has been 
undertaken on either side of the border, but Norwegian firm 
StatoilHydro had carried out, and then suspended, some 
exploration and development activity on the Iranian side.  If 
it were to win the bid for Badra in the Iraqi MoO's second 
bid round, StatoilHydro could become a credible Western oil 
company working on both sides of a cross-border field, which 
would present an ideal basis to develop a unitization 
agreement for the field.  Other international oil companies 
(IOCs), including Chevron, have approached the MoO to be the 
single operator on a cross-border field under a unitization 
agreement.  In the meantime, some members of the Border 
Committee have advocated a very aggressive general approach, 
such as by drilling a large number of offset wells, to bring 
neighboring countries to the negotiating table. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
10. (C) Exploitation of cross-border fields remains a 
sensitive issue.  Iraq's recent moves to address the issue on 
the diplomatic front are therefore a welcome development. 
International oil companies have the potential to act as 
honest brokers, but, in the case of Iran, U.S. sanctions 
create an additional complication.  We look forward to 
Washington's clarification of the U.S. legal and policy 
restrictions on possible IOC involvement in fields that Iraq 
shares with Iran and hope that an approach can be crafted 
that will not leave the field wide open to Russian and 
Chinese companies while protecting our policy interests 
vis-a-vis Iran. 
 
BUTENIS