The ministry wants to see if the winners are serious and they aren’t gambling before signing the contract, one source said. The plan supposed to be preliminary and doesn’t go into details.
The detailed field development plan must be submitted six months after formally signing the agreement, another source said.
The PCLD has suggested August 2009 as the month for a final signature of the contract.
Initially, the consortium asked the government to pay $3.99 for each additional barrel of oil they extract from the Rumaila field, but eventually agreed $2/barrel.
The BP/CNPC alliance is planning to boost the field’s production from 1.1 million barrels of oil a day to 2.85 million barrels a day.
