Oil, Rail Expansion Dominate China Talks

By Simon Kent.

Iraqi PM Haider al Abadi recently met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss high level strategic projects for both countries to cooperate on.

The major discussions focused on a plan for Iraq's State Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) and Chinese state run refiner Sinopec to coordinate the shipment, refining and marketing of oil to the Chinese market.

Chinese oil consumption remained steady this year, growing at 3% despite the downturn in the Chinese economy, and China are by far the biggest importer of Iraqi crude, taking in 28 million metric tons of Iraqi oil this year alone.

During the talks, Abadi also met with representatives of over 60 Chinese companies, but a main point on the agenda was to bring more Chinese rail expertise into Iraq, in a plan to expand Iraq's rail network from 3000km to 5000km.

(Source: AsiaOne)