Hussain al-Shahristani to stay as Iraq oil minister: Sources

Iraqi oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani, the architect of deals with oil majors that could vault Iraq into the top ranks of global producers, will keep his job in Iraq's new government, senior officials said on Saturday.

Shahristani led the oil ministry as it set Iraq on an ambitious path to boost its production capacity to 12 million barrels per day in the next six or seven years, rivalling global leader Saudi Arabia, from 2.5 million bpd now.

Iraq needs to boost oil revenues to rebuild damaged and neglected infrastructure after years of war and international economic sanctions. Crude exports account for 95 percent of its federal budget.

"The minister of oil will stay in his place as the minister of oil," said Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, an official with Maliki's Dawa party and former deputy leader of Parliament's oil and gas committee.

For international oil companies, his presence in the oil ministry amounts to a pledge that contracts he agreed will be honoured in the absence of any formal guarantee as Iraq still lacks a new oil and gas law.

A source close to Shahristani confirmed the minister would remain in office rather than take a post as deputy prime minister in charge of energy affairs.

"Hussain al-Shahristani shall keep his position as oil minister in the next government," the source said.
"Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is strongly backing him to keep his position."

Maliki will present his cabinet choices to Parliament on Monday.

Iraq has been without a new government for more than nine months since an inconclusive election in March, with the country's main Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions reaching agreement last month on dividing up top government posts.

Shahristani had been under consideration for deputy prime minister with responsibility for the oil, electricity and other energy portfolios but did not think the new job would give him enough influence, a senior member of Maliki's negotiating team said.

"The prime minister has a desire to let Shahristani be deputy prime minister for power affairs but Shahristani thinks that the minister will be the owner of the final decisions in his ministry," the source said.

Once a nuclear scientist at Iraq's Atomic Energy Commission, Shahristani said this week that he expected to have a say in the development of a nuclear programme in Iraq.

The United Nations on Wednesday gave Iraq a green light to develop a civilian nuclear programme, ending a 19-year ban dating back to the Saddam Hussein era and aimed at preventing it from developing nuclear weapons.

"Iraq used to own a developed peaceful programme compared to other developing countries before it turned to the military use under Saddam," Shahristani said in a statement issued by his office.

"God willing, I will play an important role in improving a peaceful nuclear programme in coordination with the relevant authorities."