The strength in oil prices will keep supporting the investments in oil exploration activities.¹⁾

A bonus for China is that its huge investments into Iraq in recent years were also supposedly to have given it first refusal on most of the oil, gas, and petrochemicals projects that come up in Iraq for the duration of the ‘Iraq-China Framework Agreement’, as fully analysed in my new book on the new global oil market order. As part of this, China was also supposed to receive at least a 30 percent discount on all oil, gas, and petrochemicals it buys from Iraq. The other deals – mostly in the further west of Iraq – are supposed to have first refusal given to Russia, with similar discounts on oil and gas purchases factored into those relevant agreements.²⁾