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In February 2010, SMU Dedman School of Law hosted a three-day workshop with 19 officials from the Iraq Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate and representatives of the Commercial Law Development Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce. SMU Dedman School of Law Professor John Lowe and University of Oklahoma College of Law Professor Owen L. Anderson led the discussion.
 
The Iraqi group consisted of lawyers, engineers and other petroleum-related scientists, MBAs, and accountants, who work together to structure bidding rounds for oil contracts, assess the bids they receive, negotiate the contract terms, and then administer the contracts.  Lowe, Anderson, Professor James Smith of SMU’s Cox School of Business, and the Commerce Department officials have worked with the Iraqis for the past year and a half.  In the last year, the Iraqis have entered into 12 service contracts that will bring their country many billions of dollars of revenues and may increase world oil supplies.
 
For more information on the Republic of Iraq Ministry of Oil, visit: http://www.oil.gov.iq/