Executive Director of “Oilserve”: The financial system in Iraq is not developed

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[size=52]Executive Director of “Oilserve”: The financial system in Iraq is not developed[/size]

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The Executive Director of Oil Surf, Sarah Akbar, commented on the situation of the oil sector in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, noting that the financial system in Iraq is not developed and affects the work of oil companies directly.

Akbar said in an exclusive interview with Rudaw Media Network on the sidelines of her participation in the Energy Conference held in Baghdad, Sunday (June 19, 2022), that there is a kind of encouragement for women to engage in the oil sector in Iraq at the present time, pointing out that there are good leaders in the Ministry of Energy. Oil and other oil companies in the country.

Akbar stated that the company has two branches specialized in working in the Kurdistan region and in the southern region as well, working separately from each other, stressing that 90% of its employees are local cadres that include the best Iraqi engineers and technicians.

The following is the text of the interview: 
 
Rudaw: Good time, Mrs. Sarah. I am pleased with the opportunity to talk to you. You are known as the bravest woman in the Middle East and North Africa in the oil field. I want you to tell me what is the percentage and level of women's participation in the oil sector in Iraq?
 
Sarah Akbar:  I am very happy with this meeting and I am honored to appear on Kurdistan TV for the first time. Women in the oil sector are present in the Kurdistan Region. In the ministry, for example, there is a woman named Ghazal who is excellent, and I think that she manages many things in the ministry, and in the oil companies also they are present, Whether they are engineers or accountants, and in all sectors. In Iraq in general, they have a presence in some sectors, while other sectors lack women leaders, and it is not important to have women leaders, because when women leaders are present and there are many young “models” who will follow them, you see many doors open and many young people will enter. The problem is that Iraq did not make these models in the past, because the oil fields were restricted to men only, and now there is a kind of encouragement for women to engage in these businesses.
I want to tell you something. In fact, in any work site, there is no difference between a woman and a man, veiled and not veiled. What differentiates is only human capabilities, work, understanding and specialization.

Rudaw: But the oil sector is a difficult sector even for men, and it is also a sector that is harmful to the environment. If women work in this sector, which department do they go most to the administration, the field or the office? Where are most of them?
 
Sarah Akbar:  The first thing I want to say is that working in the oil sector is not difficult at all.

Rudaw: How?
 
Sarah Akbar:  Since this job embodies a specialty, you as a man can see cooking as a difficult process, but for me it is a very easy process, why? Because I am skilled in this work, and this applies completely to the oil sector and to all the work of the oil sector, because if you have the knowledge and experience to specialize, the work remains very easy. I worked in the operations of extinguishing the fire of wells, and I considered it a very easy job, let alone the ordinary work, such as digging a well or laying a “pipe”, or managing an oil facility, these are actually very easy operations.

Rudaw: I heard your words in one of the sessions of the Energy Conference in Iraq and was astonished by what you said that banks and financial institutions are not ready to finance and support oil companies, and you called that “dirty work.” This is new to me, what did you mean by that?
 
Sarah Akbar:  In fact, within the protocols to preserve the environment, and to preserve the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there is a large environmental movement related to climate change and movement control, against the oil sector, and if you read the reports of energy agencies issued before 2021, that is, before “COP26” ″, it stipulated to stop immediately oil investment because this produces pollutants to the environment, and this means that the temperature of the earth will rise, which means great harm to everyone, since that time almost all politicians in Western countries in America and Canada and all countries that have funding capabilities, The decision not to finance any oil operation whatsoever. Banks now do not give loans to all oil companies, and if they do, they give them at a very high interest rate. Today, the price of oil is high, and the company can make profits and pay interest to the banks, but if the price drops and you have a loan and high interests, you will face a problem.

Rudaw: Good, now, is there any oil company in Iraq that requested financing from an Iraqi bank and does not get financing easily because of its work in the oil sector? Is the situation in Iraq like the situation in the rest of the Middle East?
 
Sarah Akbar:  The situation in Iraq is worse, because there are no real financial institutions in Iraq, the financial system in Iraq is not developed, and you do not have a bank in Iraq similar to international banks.
 
Rudaw: Well, we have a banking system in Iraq. How did you exchange money in the previous stage? How did you deal with the issue of financing and money transfer?
 
Sarah Akbar:  The transfer is done through banks, and there is no complication in that, but when there is a company like “Oilserve” it is supposed to work in more than one country in the world, not only in Iraq, so it has relations with international banks through which it operates, but that You ask me about the banking services system inside Iraq, as it is never developed.
 
Rudaw: How does your company operate in the Kurdistan Region, where does it work?
 
Sarah Akbar:  “Oilserve” is an Iraqi company that operates in all of Iraq, in Kurdistan we provide services to all operators, for all companies operating in the Kurdistan Region and needing services.

Rudaw: Services, what do you mean by oil services? 
 
Sarah Akbar:  Well drilling, well maintenance, well surveys, wellhead maintenance, and production maintenance are all operations related to the fields.
 
Rudaw: In Iraq, where do you finance (capitalization) with which company and in which field or well do you work?
 
Sarah Akbar:  We have more than one company. We have a company operating in the south that also does the same work. We specialize in a small part of the business.

Rudaw: Is there a difference in the way you work in the Kurdistan Region from other regions in Iraq, in terms of the suitability of the environment, which region is more suitable for you to work?
 
Sarah Akbar:  The work is good in all places, whether in the north or in the south. Of course, we have a company specialized in the north and a company specialized in the south, and they have no relationship.

Rudaw: What is the difference between them, there is a company specializing in the north and another company specializing in the south?
 
Sarah Akbar:  There is a structure that we have built, what is in the north is different and what is in the south is different, because the nature of work also has a difference in the north from that in the south.

Rudaw: At the beginning we talked about the role of women in companies. I said that your company is Iraqi. There is a problem in the Iraqi oil sector, which is that the majority of its workers are foreign cadres, and this contradicts the strategy of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, which seeks to increase local cadres in the oil fields.. Can you Mention the number of your employees, how many workers do you have and how many of them are local, and to what extent do you depend on foreigners?
 
Sarah Akbar:  The percentage of Iraqi cadres we have is about 90%, all of them are Iraqis.
 
Rudaw: Does that include senior cadres that include advanced experts?
 
Sarah Akbar:  Even the senior cadres, we have one of the best Iraqi engineers and the best technicians as well. They are all young and work well.

Rudaw: Very well, let me ask you, I do not want to ask political questions, but oil is a purely political issue. Did this recent discussion between Erbil and Baghdad over the oil file affect your investments? How do you view this issue? Do you not have fears of a decline in the oil sector in Iraq and in the Kurdistan Region?
 
Sarah Akbar:  Of course, for us, the best thing is for the Kurdistan Region to deal with the central government, and for the two parties to work in perfect harmony. This is better for Iraq and better for the Iraqi people, and this is what we aspire to and can be a link between the two parties. We have no work with politics, politics Far from our work, we are technical and specialized people, but these political problems and this type of problem prompt any investor to hesitate to enter Iraq, because if you change the system of laws that you follow, no investor likes this thing, the investor wants a stable stable situation so that He can know the return that he will get over time if he makes the investment, and there is no change in the regulations and laws that may affect him. Therefore, any disputes or disagreements alienate the investor, and as it is said (capital is cowardly), and that is well known.
 
Rudaw: Mrs. Sarah Akbar, thank you very much. You provided us with very good information. May you remain the CEO of Oil Surf Company in Iraq.
 
Sarah Akbar:  God bless you, thank you very much.
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