By Simon Watkins, for OilPrice.com. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Chevron Moves to Take Over Russia's Most Prized Iraqi Oil Field
Back in February, U.S. oil and gas giant Chevron signed four preliminary agreements with Iraq's Oil Ministry, which underscored that from that point onwards, Washington was determined to regain its influence across a country that it sees as being at least as important as any other of the leading Middle Eastern states for three key reasons.
One of the deals was to develop the supergiant Nasiriyah oil field, another was to develop four other exploration blocks in Dhi Qar province, and the third was to develop the Balad oil field in Salahaddin province.
The final agreement -- and perhaps broadly the most important to Washington -- was to transfer the management of the supergiant West Qurna 2 oil field from Russia's Lukoil following an earlier ratcheting up of U.S. sanctions directly on Russian firms.
Last week saw Chevron secure one year of exclusive negotiation rights to finalise the commercial and operational terms for taking over operatorship of this field. It was done through an advance of USD200 million on a prospective signing bonus, according to local media sources, subsequently confirmed to OilPrice.com by a senior source who works very closely with Iraq's Oil Ministry.
So, how significant is all this and why?
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