Iraq is building up debts to the oil companies developing its giant fields, industry sources said, a further sign of how the oil-price drop is putting a squeeze on revenues in OPEC’s second-largest producer. Western oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil are working at Iraq’s southern oilfields under service contracts, which are currently based on a fixed dollar fee for additional volumes produced. As a result of the halving of oil prices to around $56 a barrel from $115 in June, the amount of crude needed to pay the companies has roughly doubled – reducing revenue to a government fighting an Islamic State insurgency. “The Iraqis have a problem. The number of barrels they have to give to the companies as service fees has risen two-fold because the oil price has fallen two-fold. So Iraq simply has less barrels for themselves,” said […]