Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, crude oil export revenue in the Middle East has declined and GDP growth has slowed. However, thanks to the petrodollars accumulated during the period of high oil prices and the active response measures taken, the Middle East economy was not seriously affected by the financial crisis. According to the National Monetary Fund (IMF), in 2009, the Middle East's oil exports fell by 6.6%. The GDP growth rate has remained above 4.6 between 2000 and 2008. But it fell to 1.4 in 2009. The ratio of external debt to GDP rose again after eight years of decline, rising from 14.4 in 2008 to 15.9 in 2009. With the rise in oil prices and the recovery of global demand, the oil revenue of the Middle East oil exporting countries will increase, and the regional GDP growth rate is expected to rise again to 4.1 in 2010. In 2009, the foreign exchange reserves of the countries in the Middle East were US$1 trillion, which was higher than that in 2008. The annual growth rate was 4.8, but the growth rate of foreign exchange reserves slowed down significantly.

(1) Iran and Iran have accelerated policy adjustments and made significant progress in foreign cooperation

The financial crisis has seriously affected the oil export revenue of Middle Eastern countries, but most countries continue to maintain existing oil and gas cooperation policies . In order to expand international space and develop domestic economy, Iran and Iran have made major adjustments in their foreign cooperation policies.

1) Iraq.

In 2008, Iraq launched the first round of international bidding for oil and gas fields, which was successfully held in 2009; the second round of bidding was also held in December 2009. Iraq plans to attract foreign investment through bidding and increase its oil production to 600 million tons in the next seven years.

A. Restore the national oil company and strengthen the control of the central government. In July 2009, the Iraqi Cabinet approved a bill to reestablish the Iraqi National Oil Company. According to the bill, the Iraqi National Oil Company will have broader rights authorized by the government to exploit and operate new oil fields. It can also participate in exploration activities of oil and gas fields, issue bonds or apply for loans. The restored Iraqi National Oil Company will become the holding company of Iraq's three existing state-owned oil companies (Basra Southern Oil Company, Kirkuk North Oil Company and Maysan Province Oil Company). The bill has been submitted to Parliament for approval. At the same time, tenders are used to punish foreign companies that cooperate with the Kurdish regional government. In the second round of international bidding for oil and gas fields in Iraq, foreign companies that signed contracts with the Kurdish local government were blacklisted and refused to engage in oil and gas cooperation with these companies. Affected by this, South Korea's SK Company and KNOC Company did not pass the prequalification, and Sinopec also failed to obtain the qualification to bid due to its acquisition of the Swiss Addax Petroleum Company, which has a joint venture in the Kurdish region, Taq Taq Company.

B. Adopt the technical service contract model in foreign cooperation. The Iraqi government controls oil and gas resources and the oil and gas produced. Foreign companies can only obtain remuneration by charging service fees, thereby achieving the purpose of protecting the country's resource interests and maximizing the benefits brought by oil premiums. This method was initially resisted by most foreign investors. As a result, in the first round of bidding, only the Rumaila project reached an agreement with a service fee of two US dollars per barrel. The remaining five projects failed to bid due to the large gap in service fees between the two parties. Judging from the subsequent development, the bidders of the two projects that failed in the first round of bidding accepted the Iraqi standards after negotiation and signed the initial agreement before the official start of the second round of bidding. Compared with the first round, the projects won in the second round of bidding are smaller in scale and have lower service fees than the first round, and the conditions are more stringent. As a landmark event, the Iraqi bidding practice has set a model for future foreign bidding by major resource countries in the world.

C. Increase the proportion of foreign ownership. After successful bidding, foreign oil companies will establish a joint oil field operation company with the Iraqi state-owned oil company to be responsible for the operation and production of oil and gas fields and increase their production to target values.

In order to attract foreign investment and enable foreign oil companies to obtain service fees at a faster rate, Iraq adjusted the contract terms in the first round of bidding activities and increased the shareholding ratio of foreign oil companies in the United Oilfield Operations Company. Increase this ratio from 49 to 75; and reduce the shareholding ratio of Iraq's state-owned oil company to 25. This proportion will also continue in the second round of bidding.

D. Alleviate funding shortages by increasing signature fees and foreign corporate income tax rates. In the first round of bidding activities, Iraq significantly increased the amount of contract signature deposits it levied from foreign oil companies. According to the final bidding agreement, if a 20-year service contract is signed, the Iraqi government will charge a signing fee of 200 million to 500 million U.S. dollars; the eight contracts will charge a total of 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in signing fees, which is nearly the original request of 164 million U.S. dollars. 16 times, Iraq will return these signing fees and pay interest within 5 years after two years of the contract. In the second round of bidding activities, it is further stipulated that the signature fee will not be refunded. In May 2009, the Iraqi government cabinet approved a bill to impose an income tax of at least 35% on foreign oil companies operating in Iraq, an increase of 20 percentage points from the current income tax rate of 15%. The bill involves various oil and gas contracts including exploration, production and processing.

2) Iran.

A. Adjust the fiscal and taxation terms of cooperation and accelerate the pace of foreign cooperation. Since international sanctions have restricted investment by European and American oil companies in Iran, in July 2009, Iran actively invited Chinese oil companies to invest in the country's oil refining and oil pipeline construction projects, with a total project value of US$42.8 billion; it promised that foreign investors' shares in the refinery could be 80, 8-year tax holiday, 9.5% discount on refinery raw oil prices and other preferential policies. Since 2009, Iran has also made major breakthroughs in its upstream oil and gas cooperation, reaching eight agreements with foreign oil companies (Table 6.2). The Iranian nuclear issue has made foreign companies worried about investment risks. In addition, the sanctions imposed by Western countries led by the United States on Iran have restricted most companies and made it difficult to enter. In particular, U.S. companies are restricted by their own laws and cannot enter. Currently, they only have access to other countries. 22 companies entered. The repurchase contract model implemented in Iran's foreign cooperation makes foreign companies bear greater risks and makes it impossible to obtain too high an internal rate of return, which has been criticized by foreign investors. In recent years, Iran has continuously improved some terms of the repurchase contract while the main model of the repurchase contract remains unchanged, such as extending the contract period, determining the capital cost after the completion of the initial project, establishing a reward and punishment mechanism, etc. The revised repurchase contract Terms provide foreign investors with a more attractive return on investment.

Table 6.2 Major contracts signed by Iran since 2009

(2) Delayed projects in the Middle East have seriously affected new global production capacity

According to statistics, Since the outbreak of the financial crisis, nine large oil and gas projects in the Middle East have been postponed for more than 18 months. During the peak period of cumulative postponement, new oil production capacity was 1.71 million barrels per day and natural gas production capacity was 35 million m3 per day, accounting for more than 40% of the global total delayed production capacity. . Among them, the Manifa oil field in Saudi Arabia is the largest delayed oil and gas project in the world. It was originally planned to be put into production in 2012, but is now postponed to 2014 (Table 6.3).

Table 6.3 Large-scale oil and gas upstream projects delayed for at least 18 months from October 2008 to September 2009