By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.
Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Satarem-Missan Refinery Scandalous Contract Gets Final Termination Notice
The Iraqi Ministry of Oil (MoO) announced on 4th January 2018 that it had obliged Missan International Refinery Company (MIRC) (actually the bankrupt Swiss company Satarem) to sign an undertaking that it should start working on the 150kbd Missan Refinery within 30 days; otherwise the contract will be terminated without having any legal and financial consequences on the Ministry.
This move by the Ministry is long overdue and should be the very final termination warning as more than four years were lost without any tangible progress in the construction of the refinery.
As I have repeatedly argued, through my writings especially the direct debate communications with the Ministry officials and advisors that by concluding such a dubious contract with highly questionable unqualified bankrupt company, the Ministry surely deters serious refinery investors and, thus, defeats its own aspirations.
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Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with the former Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: mou-jiya(at)online.no, Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad). Read more of Mr Jiyad’s biography here.