Maliki picks Shahristani for deputy PM - officials
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani will take a new job with more power as deputy prime minister for energy under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's latest cabinet plan, senior officials said on Monday.
Maliki's plan, which has not yet been presented to or approved by parliament, would see current deputy oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi move up to become oil minister, said Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a senior Shi'ite politician and ex-prime minister.
Shahristani, a nuclear scientist who is the architect of Iraq's ambitious plans to become a global oil power, sought expanded powers over the entire energy sector before accepting the new job, a senior official said.
Maliki had been scheduled to present his new cabinet to parliament on Monday, but last-minute political infighting delayed the move. It was not clear when parliament would vote on a new government.
"In the cabinet formation list that is supposed to be submitted today by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Hussain al-Shahristani is nominated as deputy prime minister for energy and Abdul Kareem Luaibi is the oil minister," Jaafari said.
Two other senior sources in Maliki's political coalition confirmed that Shahristani had decided to take the deputy prime minister post.
"Hussain al-Shahristani asked for broader authority in the oil industry, especially with the issues of the contracts in the country's bidding rounds, and to have a say in running Iraq's energy sector," one senior official said.
"When he got these assurances he accepted the post of deputy prime minister for energy."
Shahristani guided the oil ministry as it reached a series of deals with oil majors that could boost Iraq's output capacity to 12 million barrels per day, rivalling global leader Saudi Arabia, from about 2.5 million barrels per day now.
For international oil companies, Shahristani's continued control over the oil sector will be seen as assurance that contracts he agreed will be honoured in the absence of formal guarantees as Iraq still lacks a new hydrocarbons law.
"There was no way he would take any post that did not give him full power," analyst Raad Alkadiri of PFC Energy said.
The appointment of Luaibi could also be seen as a sign of continuity for companies that signed deals with Iraq to develop its oilfields, which are among the largest in the world but suffer from lack of investment during decades of war and international economic sanctions.
"Luaibi was heavily involved in the oil contracts," said Samuel Ciszuk, an energy analyst at IHS.
(Writing by Jim Loney; editing by Caroline Drees)