Jiyad: Debating the TotalEnergies' Iraq Agreement

By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.

Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Debating TotalEnergies' Agreement- A breakthrough or Recycling Old Practices Without Economic Feasibility and Lacks Transparency

After only four short visits to Iraq and holding a few meetings behind closed doors, TotalEnergies (TE) managed, mysteriously, to conclude an agreement with a caretaker government of Mustafa Al-Khadimy [al-Kadhimi] comprising four projects, three of which are already known and one of which is a new, large-scale project that falls outside the domain of the Ministry of Oil (MoO), though the ministry talks much about it!

The current PM, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, assumed his premiership on 27th October 2022, and on 24th November he held a meeting with senior staff of the MoO, in the presence of TE's Chairman and CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, while the Oil Minister was out of the country; that unusual and totally unwise meeting was provocative, raises many questions and prompted me to alert him openly (https://akhbaar.org/home/2022/11/298261.html).

This abstract summarises my presentation before a debating session organised by Al-Mushtarek on 20th January in an effort to raise awareness about and enhancing national debate on this agreement.

Despite absence of transparency and lack of important indicators on the economic feasibility, contractual modalities and timeframes for the specified projects, this contribution attempts to provide insights on this agreement based on whatever available of information.

The session lasted more than two and a half hours, with half an hour for my PowerPoint presentation followed by a lively debate and comments, all conducted in Arabic. The presentation also provides a list of my related research and publications. The details and recording of my presentation, the PowerPoint and the debate session can be accessed and downloaded free-of-charge through the following link https://bit.ly/3iUoOfn

Click here to download the full analysis in pdf format.

Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with the former Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq's Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: mou-jiya(at)online.no, Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad). Read more of Mr Jiyad's biography here.

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