Dubai: Several Indo-Iraq contracts that were being negotiated for the last one year,
particularly in the oil and railway sector, may now be put on hold after the fall of
the President Saddam Hussein regime, diplomats said.
While Indian companies are hoping for a major share of new contracts in the
construction sector as well as services industry under the emerging US-supervised
dispensation in Baghdad, the overthrow of the regime has cast doubt over the deals
that were being worked out earlier, they said.
Petroleum Minister Ram Naik visited Baghdad last July and signed agreements on oil
exploration and related business. The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) was to
open an office in Baghdad and was waiting for the green signal from its Board to
invest approximately $ 63 million in Iraq.
The then Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed was considering granting ONGC oil
concession in Southern Iraq.
India was seen as a strategic partner by Iraq and bilateral trade under the oil-for-
food deal with the UN had reached $ 1 billion. More contracts in railways, oil and
gas, health and industry, in addition to technical co-operation, were being
negotiated.
Under the agreement signed during Naik's visit, India was to export to Iraq
medicine, wheat, rice, railway equipment and turbines for power generation. A
trilateral contract among India, Iraq and Algeria was being finalised for exploring
and drilling the Tuba oil field between Zubair and Rumaila in the South.
PTI
