IRAQ - Thamer Al-Ghadhban.

A former oil minister and now senior adviser to PM Nouri al-Maliki, Thamer al-Ghadhban is a secular Shi'ite technocrat having worked at the Oil Ministry for many years before the US-led invasion. He is close to Iyad Allawi, the secular Shi'ite who was interim PM from late June 2004 to early May 2005. He is also a member of Allawi's political party which includes secular Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs.

The man who at the Oil Ministry had built up its data bank on Iraq's petroleum sector, Ghadhban has been advising all the oil ministers and PMs who took over after the US invasion. A dedicated and honest man, Ghadhban usually heads oil delegations abroad at a deputy to the Oil Minister or as an adviser to the PM. There is hardly any important detail about Iraq's petroleum industry becoming available to anyone without the help of Ghadhban.

Unlike most Iraqi experts who have had strong nationalist leanings, Ghadhban is a pragmatist and favours the PSA approach to E&P and development of fields that have complex reservoirs. He has worked closely with US petroleum experts who have helped the Oil Ministry since the 2003 invasion.

Ibrahim Bahr Ul-Uloum: Appointed as Oil Minister on May 6, 2005, Bahr ul-Uloum served in this post until May 2006. But he was also oil minister from October 2004 to late June 2004. Bahr ul-Uloum (sea of knowledge in Arabic) is a soft-spoken, US-educated petroleum engineer having worked in the Arab Gulf region for many years. He returned to Iraq after the US-led invasion. On May 8, 2005, he told reporters his ministry would follow a new motto in a country gripped by guerrilla bombings and sabotage of pipelines: "Fight corruption and boost [oil] production" (see his CV in omt20IraqWhoMay16-05 & down20IraqWhoMay16-05).

More than 400 oil workers accused of corruption were sacked as soon as a post-Allawi government was formed under Dr. Ibrahim al-Ja'fari (see Gas Market Trends). But corruption at the Oil Ministry remains a big problem, despite the honesty of Minister Shahristani (see his profile in omt21IraqWhoMay21-07).

Ghadhban recently headed the Iraqi oil delegation to Muscat for a discussion on the new petroleum law and E&P investment opportunities with executives from Shell. The delegation included, Deputy Oil Minister Abdul-Jabbar al-Waqa', the head of the Oil Reservoirs Co. Nateq al-Bayati, and ranking officials from the Ministries of Planning and Finance. Bayati is also head of the Reservoirs and Fields Development division at the Oil Ministry.

Prominent Iraqi oil experts who have taking part in the drafting of the petroleum law have included Tareq Shafiq and Farouq al-Qassem. These and other experts involved are nationalists who remain influenced by the socialist/pan-Arab nationalism of the 1960s (see ood3-IraqPetroleumLawMar19-07).

Planning Minister Ali Baban, a prominent Kurd, and Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh (a Shi'ite Islamist who previously served as interior minister and is a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq - SCIRI - having been head of its militia force Badr), are involved in the decision making process for the petroleum sector. They will be among members of the planned oil and gas council which is to be set up under the petroleum law.