Iraq’s Oil Ministry is discussing using the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) as a model for its own publicly owned oil companies, according to industry sources.

“There has been some discussion of using the structure of Adnoc as a model,” says one industry source. “What is being envisioned is a single umbrella company that brings all the existing publicly owned energy companies in as subsidiaries.”

In March Iraq’s parliament voted to establish a new national oil company to manage its energy sector. Iraq established a National Oil Company in the 1960s and it was merged into the Oil Ministry in 1987.

Progress on establishing the new oil company is expected to be delayed due to the recent general election.

“We’re going to have to wait for the dust to settle before we can gauge how quickly the scheme will progress,” one source says.

In October, the UAE overhauled its public-sector energy companies, reducing the number of specialist subsidiaries and joint ventures from 20 to 16.

It also renamed several subsidiaries to bring them under a single brand.