Indonesia ministers to sign Iraqi oil deals in Baghdad
Indonesia ministers to sign Iraqi oil deals in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (Reuters): Indonesia will dispatch its trade and
energy ministers to Baghdad on Tuesday to conclude oil and trade
deals with Iraq under its oil-for-food arrangement with the
United Nations, an official at the Indonesian embassy in Baghdad
said on Monday.
Councillor Sritomo told Reuters that Minister of Mines and
Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto and Industry and Trade Minister
Rahardi Ramelan would start four-day oil and trade talks with
senior Iraqi officials.
He said they will carry a message from President B.J. Habibie
to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on "boosting relations especially
on oil and economic spheres."
Sritomo said that Habibie received on Sunday a message from
Saddam asking fellow OPEC member Indonesia to back Iraq's
candidate for the post of OPEC's secretary-general. The letter
was delivered by Iraq's Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed.
Iraq has nominated its veteran diplomat Abdel-Amir al-Anbari for
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Country's top
administrative post.
Sritomo said that Indonesia also remained sympathetic to
further candidates for the position proposed by Saudi Arabia and
Iran.
He said the Indonesian oil firm Pertamina had sent a draft
contract to develop the Tupa oilfield in the south of the country
and to carry out oil exploration in the Western Desert.
Discussion on the deals started in 1995, he added.
He said Mangkusubroto will hold fresh talks with the Iraqi Oil
Ministry on the contract.
Sritomo said Indonesia had bought 10 million barrels of crude
from Iraq under phases two and four of the oil-for-food deal with
the United Nations.
The oil deal allows Iraq to sell limited quantities of oil to
buy food, medicine and other necessities for the Iraqi population
reeling under stringent U.N. sanctions imposed for Iraq's 1990
invasion of Kuwait.
Sritomo said that Indonesia had sold $74.460 million worth of
goods to Iraq under the first five phases of the oil pact, now
into its sixth phase. These included foodstuffs, mainly tea and
cooking oil, and detergents.
He said that an 80-strong delegation will accompany the two
ministers. They included businessmen from 50 Indonesian trading
companies.
"Before the sanctions, Iraq was the number one market for
Indonesian goods," he said.