India's Reliance opts out of Iraq oil bid

BAGHDAD, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- India's Reliance Industries did not pre-register for upcoming Iraqi oil bids, though deals with Iraqi Kurdistan may have disqualified it anyway.

Iraq's national Oil Ministry gave Feb. 18 as a deadline for oil companies interested in Iraqi oil tenders to pre-register. The world's largest oil firms as well as an estimated more than 60 others did, according to unofficial tallies.

Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has said the 20 oil companies that have signed deals with Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government will be blacklisted from deals in the rest of Iraq. Reliance signed a production-sharing contract for two KRG blocks and, according to The Times of India, paid a signing bonus of between $15.5 million and $17.5 million.

"We analyzed the situation and decided not to make any further commitment in Iraq as of now," a Reliance official told The Economic Times.

The KRG and the national government have butted heads over who has control of strategic oil policy in Iraq, which has delayed any legislation that will govern the sector. Instead, the KRG passed its own regional oil law and signed other deals.

Shahristani has called the deals illegal and has cut oil sales to two of the companies involved in the KRG deals, Austria's OMV and SK Energy, South Korea's largest refiner.