CPA Infrastructure Reconstruction doc 62

EUROPEAN DEALS ON IRAQI OIL Question: What can you tell us about French involvement in handling Iraq's oil? Answer: • We are not aware of any signed contracts between any French companies and the Iraqi government to develop Iraqi oil fields. • We do understand that Total--as the conglomerate is now known--had conducted preliminary negotiations with Saddam's Iraq and had signed agreements·in principl to develop two large Iraqi oil fields, Nahr Umar and Majnoon. However, to thebes of my knowledge, these understandings, like all such preliminary understanding in the oil industry, are not legally binding. • Since these understandings were preliminary, they did not require UN approval and they did not have UN approval. During the UN sanctions regime, final deals with Iraq must have UN Sanctions Committee approval to carry any legal weight. Question: What can you tell us about Gennan involvement in handling Iraq's oil? Answer: • We are not aware of any deals between any German companies and Iraq to develop Iraq's oil fields.