Foreign Companies Eye Oil Reserves in Iraq

[leftchick]

IRBIL, Iraq - Kurdish officials are inviting foreign oil companies to explore untapped reserves in their northern region, angering Arab countrymen and raising concern about chaos in Iraq's oil industry.

Kurds, their self-ruled federation firmly enshrined in Iraq's constitution, believe they are reclaiming their right to control northern oil fields after successive Iraqi regimes purged Kurds from the industry to bring it under exclusive Arab control.

Despite the Iraqi industry's many problems — falling production, crumbling infrastructure and relentless insurgent attacks — the prospect of drilling in the world's second-largest proven reserves has led eight small foreign companies to invest in Kurdish-ruled territory.

One of them, Det Norske Oljeselskap, or DNO, of Norway, struck oil in December, less than a month after starting to drill in Zakho near the Turkish border.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_kurds_oil