China Wants To Be The 'Major Player' In Developing Iraq's Oil And Gas Fields

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends a signature ceremony with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, China, Sept. 23, 2019. Lintao Zhang/Pool via REUTERS

OilPrice.com: The Superpowers Battling Over Iraq's Giant Oil Field

Ever since the U.S. signalled through its effective withdrawal from Syria that it now has little interest in becoming involved in military actions in the Middle East, the door has been fully opened to China and Russia to advance their ambitions in the region. For Russia, the Middle East offers a key military pivot from which it can project influence West and East and that it can use to capture and control massive oil and gas flows in both directions as well. For China, the Middle East – and, absolutely vitally, Iran and Iraq – are irreplaceable stepping stones towards Europe for its era-defining ‘One Belt, One Road’ project. Earlier this week an announcement was made by Iraq’s Oil Ministry that highlights each of these factors at play, through a relatively innocuous-sounding contract award to a relatively unknown Chinese firm

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WNU Editor: Iraq's oil potential wealth and potential has always been there. The problem in properly developing it has always been due to dysfunctional and corrupt Iraqi governments and policies. The Chinese may be investing with the best of intentions while thinking of profits and long term supply in mind, but that will not change the nature of Iraq. My prediction. The Chinese are not the first in developing Iraq's oil potential, and they are going to face the same Iraqi problems and difficulties that the oil majors have experienced in the past few decades. Bottom line. They are going to get less (far less) than what they had expected.