Before the United States and Britain invaded Iraq in March 2003, their oil companies were shut out of oil-production contracts being negotiated by the government of Saddam Hussein. Today, more than six years of war later, Saddam is gone, and the U.S. and British oil companies are not only in on the oil contracts, they […]
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.
Iraq’s Overly Optimistic Oil Plans
The article takes a look at the energy prospects in Iraq, whose government aims to more than double oil production in the coming five years. While security and political constraints abound, production is inching up in Iraq, and recipients of 2009 oil-servicing contracts are beginning operations. Severe infrastructure shortfalls remain, however, and the pressure to […]
OPEC Compliance Falls to 50%
Total OPEC supply rose 40,000 bpd to 29.25 mbpd, with Nigerian output jumping by more than 100,000 bpd as domestic refineries resumed production.
Iraq Steps Up Efforts to Audit Oil Flows – with UN Help
The lack of a comprehensive and stand-alone metering system at Iraq’s oil production chain has been a longstanding problem, allowing crude and refined products smuggling operations to sustain political militias during the past years.
Heritage Oil Deepens Iraqi Kurdistan Drilling
Heritage Oil is to dig its Miran West-2 test well in Kurdistan deeper than originally planned after results proved much less productive than the adjacent test well.
Iraq to Receive Rest of Oil-for-Food Funds by Year End
The Iraqi Government has a “realistic” plan to take full ownership of a fund administering proceeds from export sales of petroleum under the Oil-for-Food Programme by the end of this year, a top United Nations official said on Tuesday. “Once all the outstanding activities under the Oil-For-Food Programme are concluded, and taking into account issues […]
BP Partners Net Contracts Worth $500m
BP has announced the first major contracts involving its partners on the rehabilitation of the Rumaila field in Southern Iraq. Three contractor groups were selected for drilling wells, worth a total of around $500 million, and will provide seven additional drilling rigs from the second half of 2010. The contracts will be awarded to: – […]
French Total Company on Graft charge.
French oil giant Total said Tuesday it has been charged with corruption and influence-peddling relating to the United Nations’ Iraqi oil-for-food programme of the 1990s. A French judge decided on February 27 to charge the company and several other defendants despite a prosecutor’s request that the investigation be dropped. Total lawyer Jean Veil told AFP […]
S.Korea Destroyer Reaches Tanker Seized by Pirates
A South Korean navy destroyer has caught up with a supertanker hijacked by pirates that was cruising towards the Somali coast with a cargo of crude oil worth as much as $170 million, an official said on Tuesday. The South Korean-operated, Singapore-owned Samho Dream, which can carry more than 2 million barrels of crude, was […]
Total Charged with Graft in Iraqi Oil-for-food Programme
French oil giant Total said Tuesday it has been charged with corruption and influence-peddling relating to the United Nations’ Iraqi oil-for-food programme of the 1990s.
Oil-for-food Probe into Total Revived
French judicial investigators have revived their eight-year inquiry into corruption linked to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq by placing Total under formal investigation for bribery in the affair.
BP Partners Net Iraq Oilfield Contracts Worth $500m
Three contractor groups were selected for drilling wells, worth a total of around $500 million and 2 two-year contracts, worth a total of around $100 million, have been awarded for the supply and installation of electrical submersible pumps and associated services.