Iraq envoy: U.S. oil investment waiting on legal changes [View All]

[Barrett808]

HOUSTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. oil companies are slowly building their relationships with the Iraqi government in anticipation of a new legal regime that will allow them to invest there, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. said Monday.

"I see very strong interest from U.S. energy companies in Iraq," Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida'ie told Dow Jones Newswires after a speech in Houston.

The companies "have visited me at the embassy and expressed that interest," while "waiting for things to be put in place," he said.

The passage of a new investment law in the next two or three weeks and a new hydrocarbons law "within this year" will create the right conditions for major U.S. investments, he said.

U.S. oil companies are "already building up their relationship with the ministry of oil" and providing training to Iraqi technicians, said Sumaida'ie, who added that he would meet with Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) executives on Monday.

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