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.

Platts Survey: OPEC Pumps 29.12m bpd in June

The 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) crude oil production output averaged 29.12 million barrels per day (b/d) in June, down 160,000 b/d from an estimated 29.28 million b/d in May, according to a just-released Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts. Lower volumes from Iraq and Nigeria accounted for […]

Basra Governor Considers Oil Projects with Int’l Company

Basra's Governor, Shaltagh Abboud al-Mayah, held discussions on Thursday with a company regarding projects in the oil sector, a media source said. “Al-Mayah met with a delegation from the Top Oilfield company to discuss the maintenance of oil rigs in Basra,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The meeting also addressed the local government’s […]

China Increases its Investments in Iraq

China didn't take part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq or the bloody military battles that followed. It hasn't invested in reconstruction projects or efforts by the West to fortify the struggling democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Workers at al-Waha Oil Co. in the southern Iraqi town of Wasit are part of […]

Iraq's Oil Exports Hit 1.9m bpd

Iraq's crude exports in June averaged 1.9 million barrels per day, the same level as the previous month, the head of the State Oil Marketing Organisation said. Average exports from the southern oil hub of Basra reached 1.45 million bpd while exports from oilfields in the north around Kirkuk averaged 450,000 bpd, SOMO head Falah […]

WesternZagros Update on Kurdamir-1 Operations

WesternZagros Resources Ltd has successfully retrieved the upper 450 metres portion of the parted drill string at the Kurdamir-1 well. Following thorough testing of the blow-out preventers, snubbing operations are now underway to recover the remaining 2,400 metres of drill string. This operation is expected to take approximately 20 days. Total costs of Kurdamir-1 to […]

Kurdistan Prepares to Export Gas via Turkey

The Kurdistan Regional Government is preparing to export natural gas to Europe via Turkey and the Nabucco project, Turkish Hurriyet Daily News said on Tuesday. “After failing to agree with the central government in Baghdad over the sale of oil and gas, northern Iraq’s administration is now preparing to export natural gas to Europe via […]

Shell to Award Deals to Develop Iraq's Oil Fields

Shell and its Iraqi state partner are in the process of awarding a deal to drill new oil wells at the super giant Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq, the head of Iraq's state-run South Oil Co., Dhiaa Jaafar, said on Tuesday. Dow Jones reports that Shell, which partnered Malaysia's state-run Petronas to develop Majnoon, […]

Safety Standards in Iraqi Oil Refineries

"The Iraqi Oil ministry is applying environmental safety standards in all refineries and it will stop using all substances that are harmful to health and the environment by finding alternatives," the spokesman of the Iraqi oil ministry said on Tuesday. "The Oil Ministry is implementing all requirements for environmental safety in Iraqi refineries, and the […]

Lukoil Allocates $5 Billion to West Qurna

According to a report from Bloomberg, OAO Lukoil, Russia’s largest non- state oil producer, allocated $5 billion to finance the West Qurna-2 project in Iraq. The funds were provided as a loan to its Lukoil Mid-East Ltd. unit exclusively for the Iraq project, spokesman Dmitry Dolgov said. The loan matures at the end of 2030, […]

Iraq's Navy Will Be Ready to Defend Oil Rigs

The Iraqi Navy is on track to assume full command of protecting Iraq's vital offshore platforms within the next two years, outgoing US Navy 5th Fleet commander, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney said Monday. 'We are working very closely with the Iraqi Navy and within two years we will be ready to turn over the entire […]

Oil Flow to Turkey Resumes

Further to our report yesterday on the attack on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipeline, Israel National News reports that oil started to flow again on Monday. A bomb, reportedly planted by Kurdish resistance fighters, had temporarily halted pumping on the Kirkuk to Ceyhan pipeline at the weekend. The bombing by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) added a […]

Iraq Launches Five-year Plan for Economic Development

China's Xinhua News Agency is so far the only source to report on Iraq's new five-year National Development Plan (NDP), announced on Sunday. The plan targets annual economic growth of 9.4 percent and attempts to cut unemployment. The country's 2010-2014 NDP was announced in a televised event in Baghdad attended by top Iraqi officials, including […]