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.

Analysis of Iranian Threat to Strait of Hormuz

The following is a presentation by General Barry R McCaffery (USA, retired), on the threat of an Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Barry McCaffrey served in the United States Army for 32 years and retired as a four-­star General. At retirement, he was the most highly decorated serving General, having been awarded three […]

Exxon Scouts already in Erbil

Despite objections from Baghdad, ExxonMobil already has personnel on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Reuters. Whiel the company has kept silent on its exploration agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), one central government regards as illegal, one Western industry source in Erbil told the news agency: "They [Exxon] are definitely here and […]

Iraq Energy Expo & Conference

All interested international companies are invited to participate in the "Iraq Energy EXPO and Conference", April 23th – 26th, 2012 at Baghdad International Convention Center. Iraq Ministry of Oil, is urging all companies to pre-qualify to do business with ministry by participating in Iraq Energy EXPO and Conference, April 23th – 26th, 20121 at Baghdad […]

Iraq Postpones Oil Terminal Start “Indefinitely”

The opening ceremony to inaugurate Iraq's first floating oil terminal was postponed until further notice, an Oil Ministry spokesman announced on Wednesday. Aswat al-Iraq reports that there were 'operational problems', while Bloomberg's contact gave no reason for the delay, the third since last month. The terminal, which has an export capacity of 900,000 bpd, was […]

Samsung Wins $1bn Oil Contract

Iraq's cabinet announced that it had approved a $998 million oilfield service contract on Tuesday with a South Korean company for the West Qurna 2 oilfield, according to Reuters. While the memo did not name the company, Samsung Engineering was the only South Korean company on the final shortlist. Iraq and its partners, Russia's Lukoil […]

Iraq Oil Income Jumped by 60% in 2011

Increased volumes and the higher price of crude oil pushed Iraq's income from oil sales up by nearly 60 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to AFP. Oil ministry figures published on Monday showed that total exports of oil increased 15 percent to 790.5 million barrels of oil, or an average of […]

Gharraf to Start Production by Sept

Bloomberg reports that Malaysia's Petronas and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (JAPEX) will start producing crude from the Gharraf oil field in southern Iraq by September. Sattar Mahdi, head of field development, said the field will initially produce about 35,000 barrels a day by the end of the third quarter, gradually increasing capacity to 230,000 […]

Gazprom Neft Starts Drilling Second Well at Badra

OAO Gazprom Neft started drilling a second appraisal well at the Badra oilfield, according to a report from Bloomberg. The Russian producer, which started drilling the first such well at Badra in November, expects to complete the second well in spring, and plans to approve the field development plant in February 2013. (Source: Bloomberg)

GKP Updates on Kurdistan Operations

Gulf Keystone has issued an update on its ongoing exploration and appraisal programme in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which includes the Shaikan block, a major discovery with independently audited gross oil-in-place volumes of between 8 billion barrels to 13.4 billion barrels calculated on the P90 to P10 basis with a mean value of 10.5 […]

ShaMaran to Relinquish Working Stakes in Kurdish PSCs

ShaMaran Petroleum has signed a final binding agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (“KRG”) to relinquish to the KRG the 60% working interests currently held in each of the Arbat and Pulkhana Production Sharing Contracts (“PSC”). Under the terms of the agreement the PSC for each of the Pulkhana and Arbat blocks is terminated whereby […]

Negotiating Iraq's Complexities

A spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Oil recently told Al Jazeera that unexplored regions of Iraq could yield an additional 100 billion barrels of oil, and that Iraq's production costs are among the lowest in the world. Additionally, the report says that only about 2,000 wells have been drilled in Iraq to date, compared with […]