During the first week of May 2018, CLDP brought a delegation from Iraq's Ministry of Oil (MoO) to Houston for the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC). The purpose was to facilitate and support the creation of Public Private Partnership (PPPs) between MoO and the U.S. private sector for the development of Iraq’s oil industry.

Iraq's oil sector, second only to Saudi Arabia’s, is entirely controlled by MoO. MoO’s effort to acquire systems and equipment from U.S. firms has been impeded by its national budget deficit due largely to the war against ISIS. As a result, U.S. firms are increasingly proposing to MoO PPP mechanisms, under which the U.S. firms provide the equipment needed by MoO, foregoing any upfront payment in lieu of annual revenues based on a long-term contract. Because of the complexity of such transactions, CLDP is developing financial models to help with contract negotiations. As an example, the Iraqi delegation met with Orion, an SME from Texas, currently proposing to build and run at its own expense a gas processing facility that will turn gas, currently flared, into gas suitable to power gas turbine power plants and into valuable natural gas liquids (NGL) such as propane or butane. In compensation for doing so, Orion would receive a share (less than 50%) of the value of the NGL. In addition, CLDP organized a meeting between the MoO delegation and a U.S. firm that could build oil tanker vessels that MoO would need to export oil. Again, a PPP approach is being envisioned, and CLDP may be asked to develop a financial model for the complex contract that would underpin such an acquisition.