The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and the Iraq Ministry of Oil (MoO)

Introduction

Since 2005, BOEMRE has been participating in the State Department chaired inter-agency Iraq Policy Operations Energy working group (IPOG). This cooperation led to BOEMRE signing an interagency agreement with the Department of State (DOS) in April 2006 to provide technical assistance to the new Government of Iraq; specifically, the Ministry of Oil (MoO) the entity responsible for managing Iraqi oil and gas resources. Technical and programmatic advice will run the full gamut of BOEMRE responsibilities from leasing/tendering to resource evaluation, to field operations, to revenue management (detailed below). Three concrete, illustrative examples of the contributions BOEMRE have made to Iraq’s development:  

	BOEMRE has provided and continues to provide direct technical and programmatic training to it’s counterparts in the Government of Iraq; namely the Ministry of Oil and the State Oil Companies in areas of oil and gas resource management in tendering, resource evaluation, field operations, information technology infrastructure, revenue management, and environmental stewardship. Furthermore, BOEMRE continues to be repositories of practical knowledge for their Iraqi counterparts to call upon as oil and gas developments in Iraq begin to ramp up. This network of relationships will be invaluable to Iraq’s development in the years to come.
	BOEMRE has provided numerous avenues of outreach to the greater oil and gas community through third-party technical training, industry meetings, and exposure at events like the Offshore Technology Conference.
	BOEMRE has provided input and comments to a number of draft laws and regulations being advanced in the Iraqi oil and gas sector; for example, the hydrocarbon law and other revenue management instruments.

 Past BOEMRE – Iraq Technical Assistance

	In June 2006, a senior delegation from the MoO led by Dr. Radhwan H. Al Saadi, Director General Economics & Finance met with BOEMRE officials in Herndon and Camarillo. A draft workplan was developed cooperatively and the elements contained therein are highlighted below.
	In March 2008, a senior MoO delegation traveled to BOEMRE Headquarters to receive updated briefings and to revise the daft workplan first developed in June 2006. In addition, the delegation received briefings from the Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program who is assisting the Ministry of their draft hydrocarbon law. The delegation then traveled to New Orleans to attend the March 19 lease sale. There they met with Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne who reiterated BOEMRE’s commitment to assist the MoO. Lastly, the delegation traveled to our Pacific Region to meet with staff from the BOEMRE as well as our partners in this technical assistance (State of California and BLM) to discuss long-term on-the-job training opportunities. The Pacific Region arranged for a field visit to ExxonMobil’s Los Flores Canyon facility on Friday March 21.
	In June 2009, BOEMRE held a comprehensive 4-day Overview of BOEMRE workshop in Erbil Iraq. The workshop was attended by 18 selected middle and senior level managers from the Iraq Ministry of Oil, the North Oil Company, the South Oil Company, and Representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Natural Resources. The workshop served two purposes: first, to present the full gamut of BOEMRE experience focused primarily on lease management, resource evaluation, field operations and revenue management (see flowchart of assistance in the appendix) to aid the MoO during the development/update of their rules and regulations; and second, to identify 15-18 of the MoO attendees to receive further on-the-job 60-day training with BOEMRE in the U.S.
	As a follow-up to the June Workshop in Erbil, BOEMRE held two, 22-day on-the-job training (OJT) stints focusing on the four-core areas of assistance to the MoO. STAGE 1: Leasing/Tendering Management & Revenue Management

Timeframe: March- April 2010

Delegation: Total of 7-8 (of which 5-6 from the PCLD) will be came from the Training Directorate and did NOT attend June 2008 Erbil workshop). The OJT focused on leasing/tendering and revenue management paired together. As part of this effort the MoO team was involved preparing for and conducting the March 2010 Gulf of Mexico Region lease sale #213.

Timeframe: April - May 2010

Delegation: Total of 11 (all attended June 2008 Erbil workshop). Stage 2 focused on the field operations and resource evaluation toward regulatory implementation and enforcement. As part of this effort the delegation was exposed to third-party technical training and also attended the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Planned BOEMRE – Iraq Technical Assistance

BOEMRE is in preliminary discussions about future cooperation. Thus far two tracks have been identified:

Unitization

The Government of Iraq (GOI) has asked the U.S. Government (USG) to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Oil (MoO) and related parties on the subject of Unitization. Due to the existence of common hydrocarbon reservoirs across Iraq’s domestic provincial/regional borders and its national land/maritime borders, the ability of the MoO to understand, regulate and engage in Unitization is critical to Iraq’s economic growth and stability. To address the GOI’s technical assistance request, the Dept. of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the Dept. of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program and the Dept. of State’s Legal Office will jointly develop and implement a comprehensive program. The program will consist of three phases and be implemented over a 12-18 month period, likely starting in May of 2011.

	The first phase, which will take place in Baghdad, will consist of a general overview of key Unitization concepts and related issues such as contracting and sanctions compliance.
	The second phase (location TBD) will introduce the contracts and agreements involved in Unitization and develop the Ministry’s ability to understand and draft such contracts.
	The third phase, which will take place in a regional location, will allow MoO officials to consult with peers in another government and take part in advanced negotiation and contracting exercises.

Countries in the International Activities Program