Iraq Company from France 2026: Supplying the GGIP

France's position in Iraq is not diffuse. It is concentrated in one programme, and understanding that programme tells a French company what its own entry looks like.

TotalEnergies operates the Gas Growth Integrated Project with a 45% stake, alongside Iraq's state-owned Basra Oil Company at 30% and QatarEnergy at 25%. The programme recovers gas currently flared at three southern oil fields to supply power plants, redevelops the Ratawi oil field in a USD 27 billion expansion, and builds a 1 GWac solar farm.

Almost no French company entering Iraq is going to operate an oil field. A great many will supply one, and that is the entry this page is about.

Key facts for French founders

The French corridor into Iraq runs through the supply chain of a single very large programme. Price the 35% question before you price anything else.

The programme, and where a supplier fits

GGIP is not one project but four, delivered in phases, and each phase creates procurement.

French suppliers are already inside it. Vallourec signed a contract with TotalEnergies for casing, tubing and associated accessories for the first phase. Thales has held talks with Iraq's Ministry of Interior on forensic systems and technology, which is a different corridor but the same pattern of a French industrial selling into an Iraqi institution.

And there is a financing channel worth knowing about: the Iraq Development Fund signed a memorandum of understanding with BPI France in Paris, aimed at supporting economic cooperation and financing strategic projects in Iraq.

Can a French resident legally own an Iraqi company?

Yes, up to 49% of a federal LLC, since Law No. 17 of 2019 amended Article 12 of the Companies Law to require Iraqi shareholders to hold at least 51%. Full ownership is available in the Kurdistan Region following its January 2022 amendments, and is understood to be available through an investment licence, though that second point is not fully settled.

1. 1No entity, if you trade WITH IraqSupplying from France with the work performed abroad should not create an Iraqi liability. Equipment shipped and installed by others can sit here.
2. 2Branch, if you hold a contractEscapes the ownership cap, but federal Iraq generally requires a government contract or an investment licence and a parent at least two years old.
3. 3LLC at 49%, for a lasting presenceThe route for a supplier with people, a workshop or a service obligation on the ground, with a genuine Iraqi partner.

The route comparison is in foreign ownership in Iraq, and the trading with versus trading in distinction that decides whether you need an entity at all is in Iraq withholding tax for non-residents.

The 35% question, which is the real French issue

Iraq taxes at 15%. But income from contracts concluded with foreign oil companies, their branches or offices, and subcontractors working in Iraq in the oil and gas production sector and related industries is taxed at 35%.

Read the scope again. It reaches subcontractors and it extends to related industries. A French equipment or services company supplying into GGIP is precisely the profile that needs to establish which side of that line it sits on, before pricing rather than after.

The mechanics of how tax is actually calculated, including the deemed profit percentages by contract type, are in Iraq corporate tax. For a French supplier the combination that matters is the deemed percentage for your contract type applied at whichever of the two rates applies to you.

The French side

France does not restrict investing in Iraq, and the questions are the ordinary ones for a French group with a foreign subsidiary.

• Article 209 B and article 123 bis reach foreign entities benefiting from a privileged tax regime, which article 238 A defines as tax more than 40% lower than the French charge. At a 25% corporate rate that puts the line at 15%, exactly where Iraq's statutory rate sits. It clears, but by nothing, and the 35% oil and gas rate clears comfortably.
• The investment licence is what moves you across that line. A project licensed by the National Investment Commission is exempt for up to ten years, so its effective rate is zero, which is unambiguously a privileged regime. Take the French advice before applying for the licence, not after.
• Where the company is really managed remains the question a French adviser will ask, as it always is. An Iraqi entity run from Paris is a French company with an Iraqi registration number.
• Export controls and end-use screening apply to a range of equipment sold into the region, and they are a first-order compliance matter rather than an afterthought.
• Sanctions screening on Iraqi counterparties should be run before contracting, not at the payment stage.

The Iraqi side, in short

1. Establish whether you are trading with Iraq or in it. This decides whether an entity is needed.
2. Choose the route: branch against a contract, LLC at 49%, or a Kurdistan entity.
3. Clear the Ministry of Interior check, required for every foreign shareholder, with no published timeline.
4. Deposit IQD 1,000,000 in an Iraqi bank, verified at registration.
5. Appoint a managing director and a deputy, with a resident manager.
6. Obtain the tax identification number early, because it gates access to the official currency channel.

Full sequence in how to register a company in Iraq.

When Iraq makes sense from France, and when it does not

45%TotalEnergies stake in GGIP, alongside Basra Oil Company at 30% and QatarEnergy at 25%

USD 27bnthe Ratawi oil field redevelopment

1 GWacsolar farm in four phases, phase one installed January 2026

Common mistakes from France

• Pricing at 15% when the contract sits in the oil and gas perimeter. The difference is more than twenty points and it reaches subcontractors.
• Building an entity for what is really trading with Iraq, where supplying from France with no performance on site may create no Iraqi liability at all.
• Assuming a branch is available. Federal Iraq generally requires a government contract or an investment licence, and a parent at least two years old.
• Running the Iraqi entity from Paris, which invites the management and control question at home.
• Treating export control screening as a shipping formality rather than a contracting condition.
• Leaving the tax identification number late, which blocks access to the official dollar rate.

The bottom line, and how CorpSec helps

The French route into Iraq is a supply chain route. One very large programme is in delivery, its phases keep generating procurement, French industrials are already inside it, and there is a financing channel through the BPI France arrangement.

What decides your economics is not the ownership rule, it is whether your contract falls inside the 35% oil and gas perimeter and which deemed profit percentage attaches to it. Settle both with an Iraqi adviser before you tender, then choose the entity from the answer.

CorpSec structures Iraqi entries end to end, in federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, and works alongside your French advisers on the management and control and export control sides.