WASHINGTON, 11 July 2003 — The US Army has solicited bids for two Iraqi oil contracts worth up to a billion dollars, replacing a lucrative deal awarded to Halliburton in March, according to documents received yesterday.
The US Army Corps of Engineers said it would issue one contract for the fields in the north of Iraq and another for the south, each worth from $500,000 to a maximum $500 million. The work is open to US and eligible foreign companies, replacing a controversial contract doled out to a subsidiary of Halliburton — a company run by US Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000.
The Army Corps of Engineers had come under fire over its granting of the Iraqi oil contract on March 8 to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) without putting it out to tender. The Corps argued that the KBR contract was simply an emergency bridge to a longer-term contract to be put out to tender. The new “requests for proposals” were published late Wednesday.
The contracts run for 24 months, with three one-year options running to a maximum 60 months. They cover extinguishing oil well fires, environmental assessments and cleanups, engineering design and construction, pipeline and refinery maintenance, procurement and importation of fuel, distribution of fuel products in Iraq, and technical assistance, the Corps said. One contract is to support the North Oil Company and the other the South Oil Company.
Meanwhile, the US civil administration in Iraq is requesting $1.2 billion from Congress to get oil fields up and running this year, a senior coalition official said yesterday. Congress had already earmarked $400 million to repair oil fields, but faced with blown up pipelines, looting, and refineries and equipment in a worse shape than previously thought, the US boss for Iraq, Paul Bremer, is asking an additional $800 million, the official said on condition of anonymity.