France and Iraq want to strengthen their energy cooperation

France also insisted on its "attachment to a stable Iraq", while it remains the target of "foreign interference" with a new operation by the Turkish army in the north of the country against Turkish Kurds and political influence. major of the Iranian neighbour.

During a meeting in Paris, the new head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, and the Iraqi Minister of Oil, Ihsan Ismail, underlined "the interest in strengthening cooperation between France and Iraq in the field of energies".

They pointed to "the consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine on global energy balances and supplies to Europe", noted the spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry.

The Iraqi minister, who arrived in Paris on Wednesday for four days, is looking for new investments in his country's energy activities.

Iraq, the second country in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has huge hydrocarbon reserves but the sector is undermined by decades of conflict, corruption and dilapidated facilities.

"We have a huge oil industry and we need more players, more competition," he explained to AFP, adding that he had asked the French companies he met to be "more involved in the market Iraqi".

"Iraq has a production capacity of 4,8 million barrels per day" and "produces between 4,4 and 4,5 mbd". “The objective is to reach 8 mbd by the end of 2027 and to reach 5 mbd by 2025” specified the minister. “Right now we are exporting 3,4 mbd,” he added.

Mr. Ismail notably had talks with officials from the French employers' association Medef and with the CEO of the French group TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné.

Catherine Colonna and her host more generally marked the desire of the two countries to "consolidate their relationship", after a double visit by President Emmanuel Macron to Baghdad in August 2020 and August 2021, noted the spokesperson for French diplomacy.

A consulate general of France should be "soon" open in Mosul, liberated in 2017 from the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group, added Anne-Claire Legendre.

Change contracts

Emmanuel Macron spoke for his part by telephone with the former President of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan of Iraq, Massoud Barzani, a key figure in Erbil and the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK).

They spoke of "the political situation in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan" as well as "the security situation and foreign interference" in the country, specified the French presidency.

The head of state offered his condolences after the death of two children on Thursday in rocket attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan attributed to Turkish Kurdish rebels.

During his visit to Paris, the Iraqi minister mentioned the dispute between the Iraqi Kurds and the federal government in Baghdad, which demands that all oil exports pumped into Iraqi territory pass through the central government, and calls for the revision of the contracts unilaterally negotiated by autonomous Kurdistan.

Asked by AFP, Ihsan Ismail expressed Baghdad's desire to "change" the contracts in force, while "preserving the rights of all parties".

Erbil refuses this control and considers that it has the right to exploit the oil on its territory as it sees fit without having to report to Baghdad.

TotalEnergies, which announced a $2021 billion contract in Iraq in 10, declined to comment on this meeting.

The contract, signed in September, covers the construction of oil gas collection and treatment units to generate electricity. The objective is to eliminate the greenhouse gases resulting from the "flaring" (combustion of exhaust gases) from the wells.

The agreement also includes the construction of a seawater treatment unit in order to increase water injection capacity in fields in southern Iraq without increasing freshwater withdrawals, as well as the construction of a 1 GW photovoltaic power plant for the Basra region (south).