Russian Energy Deals Rejected as Iraq Gets Oil House in Order

March 2006 | Company News Alert

Iraq's South Oil Company - which accounts for most of Iraq's crude production - has said it will not honour oil contracts worth some billions of dollars that were signed between Russian energy companies and the ousted regime of former-president Saddam Hussein. The decision comes after months of several Iraqi oil ministers looking into the validity of the contracts, ultimately deciding that they were signed by Saddam for 'political' rather than 'commercial' benefit, in an apparent attempt by the Iraqi leader to curry Russian political favour. The biggest of the deals affected will be a 1997 US$3.5bn contract, inked by

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