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

With my casts off (for those who didn't know I broke my arms in a sporting accident about a month ago) I felt like doing a bit more research this morning and also found this

Iraq To Sign 3 Oil Development Deals By End '04

By Hassan Hafidh

BAGHDAD - Iraq will sign upstream oil contracts with international companies by
the end of this year for the development of three oil fields, a senior Iraqi oil
official said Wednesday.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, the head of the State Company for Oil
Projects, or SCOP, Ahmed al-Shammaa, said the three oil fields, Khurmala Dome
near Kirkuk, Hamrin near Tikrit and Subba-Luhais in the south would be able to
produce 300,000-350,000 barrels a day within two years from the start of
development.

Al-Shammaa put the development cost of the three fields at $500 million-$600
million. He said SCOP had received several bids from international oil companies
to develop these fields and they are still under technical and commercial
assessment.

"We hope that these three contracts would be awarded by the end of the year," he
said.

Al-Shammaa wouldn't reveal the bidders' names, but he said they are medium-size
companies.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the Iraqi Oil Ministry is currently in Amman to
sign a contract with a Chinese company to set up eight oil storage facilities on
the Faw Peninsula in southern Iraq, al-Shammaa said, adding that this contract
worth $15 million. The storage tanks would have a capacity to handle 350,000
bbl.

"Building these depots will help stability of production and eventually will
improve exports," al-Shammaa said.

He also said that his company would soon sign contracts to purchase equipment
worth $17 million to upgrade the East Baghdad oil field. He said the aim of the
project is to increase output of the field from 5,000 b/d to 20,000 b/d of heavy
oil to supply the nearby al-Quds power station.

Also SCOP has already started buying equipment through contracts with
international oil companies to rehabilitate and upgrade Iraq's dry gas pipeline
network across the country, he said.

This project would cost $250 million, al-Shammaa said, adding that about 25
companies had submitted bids to the ministry to supply equipment. Some of them
are major oil companies, he said.

2004 Dow Jones Newswires.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What interested me was this

"Al-Shammaa put the development cost of the three fields at $500 million-$600
million. He said SCOP had received several bids from international oil companies
to develop these fields and they are still under technical and commercial
assessment. "


If you go back to PET's October 2004 slides (on the website), you will see that PET are excatly at this stage, or atleast were 2 weeks ago, it may have already been finalised now, this coupled with the news that a risk/sharing agreement was given out yesterday makes for excellent reading, as far as the other international companies go, there is no news what so ever about Iraqis visit them or them even being considered in stage 3 of the tenders (not conculsive I admit, but it is not looking good for them, and looking more and more like PET are victorious!!!)

As for the date I can't really see it taking until the end of the year, not with the oil officals being in Ireland for the last two weeks for final contractual, commercial & technical discussions.
Why would them come all the way to Ireland and then make PET go over to Iraq to discuss the same things, I feel the PET visit to Iraq is more to put pen to paper on Iraqi soil!!!!

Well all IMHO, What do you guys think?

Tokyo

Tokyo: Thanks for your research and comments. Firstly the Iraqi folks in Ireland are, I believe, on a training mission from earlier Petrel comments. They are also probably undertaking some due diligence on Pet's capabilities and those of any sub-contractors that may be involved. If as we believe PET are in the running for a major contract, you would expect a lot of communication taking place between PET senior management and Oil Ministry Officials via other forms of electronic communications as well. However a trip to Baghdad suggests that the exchanges are/have reached the stage of direct to direct meetings...which is a very good sign...IMO. Of course you would also expect other potential contractors to be involved so until there is real INK on the key papers. then there is always a risk! But all in all, still very promising. John

Morning Tokyo(afternoon),
Good research mate,the only thing i don`t quite follow is the risk sharing contract bit ,it`s about Iran and not Iraq.PLease correct me if i`m wrong.
Dexter.

ps.glad the casts are off.

Just found this, might be of interest;
14. Oktober 2004

Oil & Gas: Iraq looks to Norway

In a letter to Norway's Oil and Energy Minister, Thorild Widwey, her Iraqi counterpart, Thamir Ghadhban writes that Iraq wants to learn from Norway, how to manage the nation's oil wealth.

The Iraqi oil minister would is also like to enter an agreement for Norwegian technical assistance, according to Dagens Naeringsliv.

The letter may mean great opportunities for the Norwegian oil industry in Iraq, the newspaper writes.

The enquiry comes after a delegation from the Iraqi Department of Oil visited the Norwegian Oil and Energy Department as well as Staoil last summer.

-We are positive to cooperating with Iraq when conditions are right, with regard to security and also politically, says political adviser Bjoern Kjetil Mauritzen to the newspaper.

(NRK)

Great research!!! keep up the good work!!!
Just sit back and enjoy the ride!!!

dexter - oops made a mistake on the 1st article this morning it was Iran and not Iraq, the perils of researching, before I've had tea or coffee!!!
cheers for the correction

Hi all,
just got this in my inbox from the Telegraph web site.

Petrel Resources tumbled to 76.5p in early dealings on rumours that managing director David Horgan had died in Iraq while visiting the Ministry of Oil.

He later denied the rumours on a bulletin board, causing the shares to rally, closing 20.5 higher at 108.5p.

Volume was a hefty 3.7m shares

wilbs

Has anyone noticed regular buys of 10000 coming through, the same thing seemed to be happening yesterday, or is it just me.

The 10000 buys will be the Bots.

Interesting that they are in on this share, normally only operate on the FTSE100
top 6 companies.

I will watch this closely as they can be manipulated .

Need to find out which Index they are following , as this is the Norm.

But who knows with PET !!!!!

If those 10,000 trades were bot trades they would be maked as AT trades.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a bot trade?

Sandrew64,
i would guess it means you have to sell your arse to fund more shares!!!!!!!!!,
dexter

Nice one!! lol
Has something happened or about to. From 2 pm lots of buys.

bot is robot or automatic trade.

don't worry I had to ask once, too!!!!!!

I bet the CEO had a good lunch.

Probably started a mini buying frenzy.......

See things are still uncertain here.

Still interested and still watching.

Good luck all.

:-)

Lot of late sellers went thro', must be wanting to relax over the w/e. z

Has anyone heard any new re; visit to iraq????

Tokyo and Dexter, after a very tensed week are you two calming your nerves down this weekend, nobody posted anything on Pet yesterday, where has everyone gone?, or have they given up due to the stress it's causing!!!