Energy Committee: Licensing rounds brought a great loss to Iraq

INA – Baghdad
Parliamentary Energy Committee confirmed that the licensing rounds have caused a great loss to Iraq, indicating the need to reconsider it.
"Energy Committee discussed many times the licensing rounds and their impact on Iraq," said a member of the committee, Amjad Al-Iqabi in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
He indicated that "Iraq has a lot of professional energies that can work to extract oil,"
Al-Iqabi explained that oil production increased when the Ministry of Oil contracted with oil companies, but the licensing rounds are “unfair to the Iraqi people because these companies did not comply with OPEC"
“The oil that Iraq is committed to, whether the Iraqi government sells oil or not, as these companies continue to extract oil, which leads to the loss of Iraq, especially with the entry of Corona pandemic and the deterioration of its economic impact,” he added.
He stressed that “the Oil and Energy Committee has submitted many letters and official decrees to the Ministry of Oil, Integrity and the Prime Minister to reconsider the licensing rounds," indicating that "discussions are still ongoing in the committee to stop some contracts or reformulate them, and it is the best and most appropriate for the Ministry of Oil to end the crisis,"
"Iraq is going through a major crisis despite the high price of a barrel, but it is still committed to oil exports with OPEC and companies have not reduced their production from extraction," he explained saying, "Iraq exports two million 700 thousand barrels per day, and it has the ability to export 6 million barrels per day,".