A former Iraqi oil minister has identified delays in opening letters of credit (L/Cs) as one reason why he believes the prospects for Iraq's oil sector are uncertain.

Issam Chalabi, who was also a former president of Iraq National Oil Company (NOC), has recently made two presentations covering Iraqi oil and politics.

Problems

"The Ministry of Oil has experienced long delays in the opening of L/Cs," he said at a recent conference in London.

Chalabi also talked about problems with oil smuggling, a lack of progress towards signing new oil exploration and production projects and problems at Iraq's refineries at Daura and Basra.

L/C remedies

Earlier this year the Trade Bank of Iraq said it was aiming to speed the process of opening L/Cs by holding a series of training sessions for Iraqi ministries that will include classes on how to handle L/Cs (DC World News, 28 November 2007).

Chalabi was Iraq's oil minister from 1987-90 and president of NOC from 1981-87.

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