Hydrocarbon committee invites minister to public session

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The oil and gas committee in the Iraqi Parliament on Tuesday invited the oil minister to attend a public session over the contract signed between his ministry and Shell Oil Company. “We invite the minister of oil, Hussein al-Shahrestani, to attend a public session to become acquainted with the committee’s remarks on the contract signed by his ministry with the U.S. Shell company to invest in gas projects in southern Iraq,” a committee member, Nour al-Din al-Hayali, said during a Baghdad-based press conference attended by IraqiNews.com. On September 22, the oil ministry signed a 25-year contract with Shell Oil Company, under which the latter will hold 49 percent of the venture and the Iraqi South Gas Co. 51 percent, Hayali added. Shell Oil Company is the United States-based affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company (“oil major”) of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. SS (P) 1