Dow Jones Newswires First to Report on Shell and China’s Iraq Oil Plans

- Dow Jones Says Shell and Two China State-Owned Oil Companies are in Negotiations for Equity Stakes in Venture -

NEW YORK, April 29 /PRNewswire/ — On April 13, 2009, Dow Jones reported that Royal Dutch Shell PLC is in advanced talks with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co., and China Petrochemical Corp., the parent of listed company China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., on a possible joint bid to develop the Kirkuk oil field in northern Iraq. This news provided an indication that China may be ready to trade access to its own domestic energy reserves in exchange for expertise gained from international oil majors in bidding for, and operating, major foreign energy projects.

The Dow Jones article said that in return for taking CNPC along in Iraq’s landmark first postwar bidding for development service contracts in Iraq’s huge and under-developed oil and gas fields, Shell hopes to gain CNPC’s approval for a production-sharing contract for the Jinqiu gas field in China’s southwestern Sichuan province.

The news, unmatched by rival news organizations Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg on April 13, later ran in The Wall Street Journal. At a press conference in Beijing on April 14, Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer confirmed that Shell is in talks with Chinese oil companies on a joint bid to develop an oil field in Iraq.

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