Iraq fires head of state-owned oil company
AFP | July 30, 2009
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government has fired the head of state-owned South Oil Company (SOC), who publicly criticised Baghdad's auctioning off of oil and gas fields to foreign energy giants, an oil ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Fayadh Hassan Nima was replaced as SOC's chief executive by the head of the company's department of oil fields, Dia Jaafar, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said.
"The oil ministry and the government are always looking for ways to improve administration of the oil sector," Jihad said, referring to the reasons Nima was dismissed.
Nima had loudly protested the public auction for six giant oil fields and two major gas fields, arguing that the SOC should be given the task of exploiting the fields in southern Iraq with only technical assistance from foreign companies.
Baghdad held the sale at the end of June, but reached agreement on only one of the fields, with the government facing accusations that the sale had been a failure.
It was the first time Iraq's oil industry was opened up to foreign companies since its nationalisation four decades ago.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
AFP : Iraq fires head of state-owned oil company
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Filed under
Fayadh Hassan Nima,
Iraq,
oil
by Winter Patriot
on Sunday, August 16, 2009
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