For a long time, the northern Kurdistan region was seen as the most attractive oil market in the country but the latest bid rounds in December and subsequent contract signings in the south have made it suddenly “less clear that Baghdad actually needs an oil law with Kurdistan, because they’re actually doing pretty well on […]
Archive | Iraq Oil & Gas News
Iraq Business News brings you the latest information on developments and opportunities in the oil and gas industry in Iraq.
Shaping Iraq’s oil policy – and its politics
At stake is arguably the fiscal future of Iraq and its effect on the world’s supply of oil for the next 50 years. The case centres around the applicability of laws from the previous regime, whether an old law which has not been repealed or altered requires federal oil tenders to be ratified by parliament.
Work to Start in Halfaya
China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) will start work on the Iraqi Halfaya project in the second half of this year, Jiang Jiemin, the chairman of CNPC’s subsidiary PetroChina (0857.HK), said on Friday. Jiang also said it would take a fairly long time to finalize the purchase agreement for a deal to buy 2 million tones […]
Tide Turns as Kurds Push for Oil Law
While the Iraqi government has made overtures to its Kurdish counterpart in the north to end an oil standoff, much remains in doubt without legislation to keep the industry in check – rules which this time the Kurds are pressing for rather than Baghdad, writes Fawzia Sheikh For a long time, the northern Kurdistan region […]
Oil Deals Vital to PM’s Campaign
Backed by armed bodyguards, international oil executives have flocked to Basra to survey their potentially lucrative prizes: the fields that they hope will one day be pumping out dramatically greater amounts of cheap, plentiful crude. For their companies, the fields that they won the rights to develop in two biddings rounds last year are their […]
Drilling Contract in Rumaila
Iraq announced a $318 million contract with a unit of Turkish Petroleum to drill 45 wells in the supergiant Rumaila oilfield as the country strives to regain and even surpass pre-war production levels. Britain’s BP and China’s China National Petroleum Corp signed a 20-year contract to develop the Rumaila field in southern Iraq, which alone […]
Abu Dhabi Lowers Crude Prices
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the state-owned producer, cut February prices on all its crude grades by about 4 percent after Persian Gulf suppliers including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran lowered rates for buyers in Asia, according to Bloomberg. The price for Murban crude, its largest export grade, was lowered to $74.20 a barrel.Upper Zakum […]
Iraqi Oil Exports Hit a New High
According to AFP, Iraq’s oil exports in February were the highest since 1990, at 2.069 million barrels per day. Reuters puts the figure slightly higher, at 2.083 million bpd, up from 1.926 million bpd in January. The average selling price was $73-$74. 1.612 million bpd were shipped from the southern oil hub of Basra, and […]
Turkish TPIC Wins $318m Iraq Oil Contract
Reuters reports that TPIC, the foreign exploration unit of state-run Turkish Petroleum, has won a $318 million contract to drill 45 wells in Iraq’s supergiant Rumaila oilfield, near Basra. British firm BP and its Chinese partner CNPC signed a 20-year development contract last year for Rumaila, which has an estimated 17 billion barrels of crude […]
Talks on Nassiriya Oil Field Break Down
According to a variety of sources, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has said that talks with a Japanese energy consortium over the development of the Nassiriya oil field have broken down. “The talks reached a deadlock and we aren’t going to meet again,” Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, head of the ministry’s petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, […]
OPEC Crude on the Rise
Crude oil supply from OPEC is rising to the highest in 14 months led by Angola and Saudi Arabia, a survey showed, further reducing compliance with output targets. Supply from the 11 OPEC members with output targets, all except Iraq, is averaging 26.80 million barrels per day (bpd), up from a revised 26.69m bpd last […]
Iraqi Talks with Shell Continue
Reuters reports that talks are still ongoing between Iraq and Royal Dutch Shell on a natural gas deal near the southern oil hub of Basra, although they are taking longer than expected, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Friday. “The heads of agreement will be extended and the project will be presented to the […]