The tiny Irish stock on the brink of landing 'the first' post-sanction oil deal in Iraq. Ref 'Fleet Street Letter' 12-04-04..

streaming all ok, must be your side, have you been fiddling with software etc over Xmas?

Just off to bed in Whistler as you chaps are getting cracking - not at all inspiring. Hope to have decent replies to my posts above when I get up before another glorious days skiing - although snow is forecast and I might just stay in bed. PET looks in festive mood which is great.

Eric

Its all ok now thanks guys. My pc is quite old, gettin new one next week.

wilbs

Eric,
As usual, a very good and thoughtful post. I agree that PET`s sp won`t reach the dizzy heights before any positive news,too many people got burnt, but i`m glad to be back in. i think the price i paid, 58p, will give me enough cushion should it dive on any bad news.

When people were talking about sp of anything from 2 to 20, i think most of us got caught in the enthusiasm of the moment( i know i did!), and i was glad that i ran out of funds before i got carried away !.

The thing i don`t understand is where Ivanhoe came from, ok on the website they released in October news that they had a MOU to evaluate the Qaiyarah field in northern Iraq. But going back over the year there is no mention of them tendering for the contracts that PET have.The MOU they have signed is to evaluate the oil in place and not for engineering work etc.

Please tell me if i am way off the mark, as i`m sure you will.!

Dexter

ps. did you have a good Christmas Tokyo and Mrs Tokyo?

Dexter - Yes old friends of mine from my Uni days have come over here(one of their girlfriends is Japanese), so we had a great christmas, with some unexpected friends. It has also started snowing in tokyo today, hate the cold, but love skiing, so there is always a bright side!!!

Ivanhoe came from the Times article below


http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e86be4fe-5510-11d9-9974-00000e2511c8.html

Baghdad signs oil deal with 3-nation grouping By John Reed in Baghdad Published: December 23 2004 22:00 | Last updated: December 23 2004 18:56 Iraq has awarded its first post-war oil contract to a Turkish-British-Iraqi consortium and plans to sign four more deals by early next year, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Thursday. Under the $136m (101m, 71m) deal, Avrasya, a Turkish engineering company, will lead a project to develop the Khurmala Dome, an extension of the Kirkuk oilfield in northern Iraq, Ahmed Al-Shamaa, undersecretary for oil, said. Three bidders for the tender to develop Hemrin, another northern field, will be asked for final offers soon in a second deal. Mr al-Shamaa said he received a recommendation on Thursday to proceed with the Khurmala contract from a cabinet oil and gas body formed in July to give Iraq's interim government tighter control over the country's biggest industry. The Khurmala contract provides for the supply of surface equipment and material to develop the field; supervision of construction; and assistance during commissioning. Avrasya and Kar, an Iraqi construction company, are joint-venture partners. Dynamic Processing Solutions, based the UK, will participate through an engineering contract, the company confirmed. Mr al-Shamaa said Iraq's government had decided to re-establish contact with the three bidders for the Hemrin field, as the first two offers were close in price. "We are giving them a chance to give their last price," he said. "We have asked them to give us an answer by the end of the year." He declined to name the bidders, but an industry source identified them as Canada's Ironhorse Oil & Gas, Nasdaq-listed Ivanhoe Energy and Irish- and London-listed Petrel Resources. The tender to supply engineering materials and oil and equipment for Hemrin will be worth about $180m. Word that Iraq is reopening talks with the three companies could boost Petrel, whose shares dived earlier this month after a report that IOG had won the deal. Iraq's oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's, but the sector's rehabilitation has been plagued by security problems, including insurgent attacks on its main pipeline and other installations. Mr al-Shamaa conceded that conditions for negotiating the first two deals, which were delayed, were "not perfect" due to difficulties in arranging meetings. Negotiations took place in Jordan, lasting from October until earlier this month. Iraq's oil ministry plans to make recommendations on bids for three other projects in southern Iraq by the end of this year, Mr al-Shamaa said. The tenders to develop the Zubair and Suba-Luhais fields and a refining project in Basra had drawn five, six, and four bids respectively.

Come on you Tories!,come you PET!


Tories may dump capital gains tax

29 December 2004
CONSERVATIVE leader Michael Howard has set out tax plans that could include abolishing capital gains tax at a cost of 2bn. And today he will suggest inheritance tax reforms.

Any pet players today .

Too busy with jarvis!!!

wilbs

wilbs,
are you in jarvis?

Goodluck wilbs.

I was going to take the plunge once again & try make some of my money back but it seems that I break out into a cold sweat whenever I pick up the phone to my brokers...so I bottle it. I would deffo be in there if there was some sort of confirmation from PET about the current state of affairs re the contracts.

A bit steep to enter now 40s low risk.

Cheers daves dazzlers.

Hi dexter, Im in jarvis, got a nice little proffit at the mo. Also in Dragon Oil (dgo) which is also doing well since I bought and I took the plunge with My travel.

wilbs

i`ll be over tonight, drinks are on you then !

Anytime dexter.

I might just take you up on that when PET come in !,

just found this over the road.

Reuters.com Help & InfoBy Khaled Yacoub Oweis
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's U.S.-backed government confirmed on Wednesday it has awarded a contract to develop the Khurmala Dome oilfield to an Iraqi-Turkish company.
The engineering and supply agreement, estimated at $135 million, marks the country's first foreign oil deal after the war.
A government statement said a consortium of Iraqi-based firm Kar, and Turkish-based company Avrasya, previously transliterated at Everasia, has won the deal to realize Khurmala's output of 100,000 barrels per day.
The northern field will also produce 100 million cubic feet of gas.
"The agreement was signed at the oil ministry on Monday. There has been delay on similar projects, but we hope to sign them early next year," spokesman Assem Jihad told Reuters.
British engineering company DPS is involved as a subcontractor, Jihad said. DPS confirmed that it would work on the project.
The Khurmala project is part of Saddam Hussein era plans to stop deterioration in the oil sector infrastructure and does not involve contractors after construction or as operators.
Oil ministry crews will perform most of the work. The ministry has already curtailed several projects because of sabotage and attacks on its employees.

Another contract to develop the Himrin oilfield was delayed. The oil ministry asked for new bids last week after it had sent the name of the leading contender to a committee headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi for final approval.
An oil ministry official, who declined to be named, said the Oil and Gas Council turned down Canadian company OGI because it was not qualified.
OGI describes itself as a privately held exploration, development and oilfield service company that spent years working on the bid.

dexter and others

Additional thoughts. No negativity should be felt about loss of Khurmala Dome as it was obviously a clear-cut win and one would imagine that the Turks would be keen to buy into the most northern project to gain a foothold in Iraq's oil industry. Your last post indicated that the cabinet do not rate IOG and that the project is therefore between Petrel and Ivanhoe, unless IOG can strengthen their partnerships. With the two other potential southern bids, Petrel appear to be in a strong position.

As none of these bids involved production you are right to be cautious in terms of the probable PET price if they do win one of the projects. It appears more like a step at a time but that makes them a potential long-term player rather than being in and out for a quick buck. Happy to be still in although aware that price paid was too high. Funnily enough, I tend to forget the price paid - the prospects from the current price are the key thing. It keeps the adrenalin flowing to have a company like PET rather than just boring old ASOS which are always going up - like the chap I play golf with: always straight down the middle and beating his handicap!

Eric

theres our baby hopefully

Morning all,
I e-mailed Ivanhoe yesterday and here is my reply
Dexter.


Roger,

We have bid on a project at Hamrin, however it is service contract, unlike the study we are doing at Qaiyarah, which is for field development.

Regards,

Cindy Burnett
Investor Relations
Ivanhoe Energy Inc.
Tel: (604) 331-9830
Fax: (604) 688-7168
cindyb@ivancorp.com



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ******.***** [mailto:*************@**internet.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 4:39 AM
To: info@ivanhoeenergy.com
Subject: Iraqi oilfield developement



[ From the Ivanhoe Energy website at http://www.ivanhoe-energy.com/s/CorporateOffice.asp on Wed Dec 29, 2004 at 4:35:54 AM ]

Dear sir/madam,
There is a lot of speculation surrounding Ivanhoe tendering for a contract to develope the Hamrim Oilfield in Iraq. Icannot find anything on your website relating to this, only your MOU to conduct a study of the Qaiyarah Oil Field. please could you clarify this point.

Many thanks,
yours,
***** *******

Iraq's Khormala Field to Focus on Gas for Power
by Shai Oster
Wed, Dec 29, 2004 17:20 GMT


LONDON - Iraq's first postwar petroleum project will focus on gas for domestic power plants and industry, the head of the engineering firm hired by Baghdad said Wednesday.

A consortium of three firms including U.K.-based oil and gas engineering firm DPS (Bristol) Ltd. won the $136 million contract to develop the Khormala Dome field.

"The scope of work is well defined, we will start engineering very shortly," DPS managing director David Parkinson told Dow Jones Newswires.

Earlier reports suggested the government was considering production sharing contracts for oil export amid speculation the Canadian oil exploration companies OGI Group, Ironhorse Oil and Gas (IOG.V) or the Irish Petrel Resources (PET.LN) were leading the way to secure the deal.

Instead, the deal is limited to designing and building the wells and facilities, leaving eventual production to the government's state-owned monopoly.

"Talks about this project have been going on for some time, this isn't a five-minute job," Parkinson said.

His young firm has engineering and procurement contracts with units of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD SC), Total SA (TOT), and Malaysia's state-owned oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (PET.YY), or Petronas.

The other two firms, while relatively unknown, have been established in Iraq and the Middle East for some time.

KAR Group has had contracts since the mid-1990s working with international aid agencies distributing fuel and building power and oil facilities in Iraq, its website says.

Avrasya Technology Engineering and Construction Inc., founded in 1993, has been working in the oil, gas and petrochemicals industry in Iraq, Russia and Central Asia, its website says.

The Iraq government says it will award contracts for development of the 60,000 barrels a day Himrin oil field in the coming days.

2004 Dow Jones Newswires.


The Iraq government says it will award contracts for development of the 60,000 barrels a day Himrin oil field in the coming days.

So they must have a pretty good idea of who they are going to award these contracts to.

Could it really just be down to PET & Ivanhoe?