Interview with Loris Tealdi, Managing Director, ENI Iraq b.v.

The eleventh edition of the Iraq Petroleum Conference taking place on 22-23 May 2017 in London is set to gather the Country’s industry experts to discuss the future of Iraq’s hydrocarbons sector.

Ahead of the conference, CWC Group Director Nawar Abdulhadi interviews one of the key speakers of this year’s event, Mr Loris Tealdi, Managing Director, ENI Iraq b.v. Mr Tealdi shares his experience working on the Zubair oilfield, how Eni is working towards innovation and his outlook for the future of the industry.

Nawar Abdulhadi: Why is Iraq such an important market for the global oil and gas industry?

Mr Loris Tealdi: Iraq is historically one of the most important areas in the world in term of oil reserves and production potential. In addition, there may be also future evolutions to improve gas valorisation and empower the downstream sector.

The Iraq reservoirs are of great size and excellent properties. On top the government is quite open to the application of new technology and innovation that can lead to very important results in term of production enhancement also in the short run. Eni has a story to tell here: the exceptional oil production ramp-up of over 70% that we had in giant Zubair field over the last 2 years.

Nawar Abdulhadi: How does the Government of Iraq and the oil and gas industry work together to drive innovation?

Mr Loris Tealdi: The drive for development is the effective deployment of new technology; here the presence of IOCs in the country and the effective know-how transfer from the industry to the brightest Iraqi personnel can be the leverage for a significant improvement from many perspectives. As far as Eni is concerned in Iraq, an important event that marked a new attitude of the country is the entry of SOC as second party in The Zubair JV replacing Occidental after its withdrawal in 2016. This event is a step change in the cooperation between IOCs and NOCs in Iraq and has the potential to strengthen win-win solutions and to further improve the deployment innovative technology In Iraq.