据路透社3月4日报道,伊拉克石油部副部长Fayadh al-Nema在采访中表示,伊拉克将于4月份向外国石油公司支付2015年的大约20亿美元的欠款,预计在今年年中与各公司在合同方面达成新的协议。
包括英国石油、壳牌、埃克森美孚、埃尼集团、卢克公司在内的跨国企业,根据服务合同经营伊拉克南部的油田,政府根据产量支付费用。这在低油价时期给国库财政造成了巨大的压力,所以伊拉克正在和这些企业进行协商,使支付费用和国际油价联系起来。
Nema说:“新修改的协议可以抑制生产成本的膨胀,也会使伊拉克背上债务。石油公司若是要减少成本,可以将钻井业务承包给伊拉克国有钻井企业,或是用本地劳工代替外国工人。”
Nema还表示,伊拉克将在年底前与中国石油、埃克森美孚等能源公司达成协议,在南部较小的油田进行投资,提高产量。
沈佳蕾摘译自路透社
原文如下:
Iraq to pay $2 bln in arrears to foreign companies-deputy oil minister
Iraq will pay foreign oil companies about $2 billion in remaining arrears for 2015 this April and expects to reach an agreement over contracts by half-way through the year, the deputy oil minister said.
International firms such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell , ExxonMobil, Eni and Lukoil operate in the southern oilfields under service contracts, whereby they are paid a fixed dollar fee for additional volumes produced.
Those agreements have put Baghdad's coffers under immense strain as government revenues plunge due to slumping oil prices and Iraq is in talks with foreign companies to link the fees they receive for developing its fields to crude prices.
"The new amended agreement will help to prevent inflating production costs and getting Iraq in debt," Fayadh al-Nema who is in charge of upstream operations told Reuters in an interview in the southern oil city of Basra.
Nema said one way of reducing companies' costs was to hand drilling operations over to Iraq's state-run drilling firm, or to replace foreign workers with locals.
Nema said a deal with PetroChina, ExxonMobil and other energy companies could be reached by the end of the year over investing in a project to boost output from its smaller southern oilfields.