Tuesday, Dec 21, 2010

(Adds new comments, details.) 


 
   By Hassan Hafidh 
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Iraq's parliament Tuesday approved Abdul Kareem Luaiby, a long-serving engineer in various Iraqi oil installations, to lead the powerful Oil Ministry, parliament's speaker Osama al-Nujaifi said.

Luaiby, who served as deputy oil minister for the last two years, replaced Hussein Shahristani, a nuclear scientist by training, who Tuesday was also approved by lawmakers for a new job, with more power, as deputy prime minister for energy. Shahristani was also approved by lawmakers as acting electricity minister until a new minister is named, the speaker said.

Shahristani, a Shiite who is backed by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's coalition, and who engineered Iraq's dozens of mega deals with international oil companies, is expected to maintain a strong influence on the ministry.

Luaiby, 51, has a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from Baghdad University. He was the oil ministry's inspector general between 2007 and 2008.

In 2008 he was appointed senior deputy oil minister for extraction. Before he was inspector general, he was the deputy director-general at the ministry's technical department. He also served in a number of the ministry's affiliated companies such as the Dour refinery near the capital Baghdad.

Luaiby maintains good relations with international oil companies. He helped outgoing oil minister Shahristani execute about a dozen recent deals with international companies aimed at increasing Iraq's oil production from the current 2.4 million barrels a day to at least 7 million barrels a day in 2017.

The new oil minister's appointment is seen as a sign of continuity for international firms that signed deals to develop Iraqi oil fields, which are among the world's largest but suffer from lack of investment, war and sanctions.

"This is a good move, if the new minister (Luaiby) is under the supervision of Shahristani," said Ehsan Ul-Haq, senior energy market consultant at the London-based KBC Energy Economics. "Shahristani's supervision means that the same Iraqi oil policies would continue."

Luaiby later confirmed he would pursue the same policy of his predecessor. "There won't be any change in the oil ministry's posts," he told reporters in his first briefing in Baghdad. The minister would also help international companies to execute the works given to them to develop Iraqi oil fields.

In his cabinet's working program, Maliki also urged parliamentarians to enact the long-awaited hydrocarbon law in order to reassure international oil companies that signed huge oil deals with Iraq.

The law was initiated by the outgoing government more than two years ago but it never moved past being debated.

-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; Hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

21-12-10 1529GMT