Baker Hughes sees Increased Drilling in Iraq
Baker Hughes, the world's third largest oilfield services firm, expects drilling activity to pick up in Opec-members Saudi Arabia and Iraq from the second half of this year as delayed projects restart, Reuters reported on Wednesday. "For the second half of 2011, we expect activity to increase, especially if you look at Saudi and Iraq," […]
Clyde & Co Wins Iraq Lukoil Contract
Clyde & Co has been appointed by Lukoil Mid-East Ltd to support them in their development of the West Qurna-2 field in Iraq. With recoverable reserves of 43 billion barrels West Qurna is the second largest oil field in the world. This is a landmark project for Lukoil, representing as it does a planned production […]
Iraqi Drilling Company Starts Work at Zubair
Reuters reports that Iraq's state-run Iraqi Drilling Company has started work at the Zubair oil field under a $250 million contract to drill 23 new wells in the field. Director Idrees al-Yassiri said the two-year contract also included overhauling 63 old wells in Zubair. "We have started executing the contract awarded to us by ENI […]
Hyundai Starts Work at al-Quds Power Station
South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. has started work on a $219 million project to expand a gas-fired power station near Baghdad, Bloomberg has reported. The Al-Quds station located in a suburb northeast of the capital will increase production to 1,400 megawatts from 900 megawatts withing 18 months, according to Qais al-Waeli, a spokesman […]
Video: Citigroup Expansion into Iraq
Further to our article on Citigroup's planned expansion into Iraq, Bloomberg News has run a piece on this story. The video includes an interview with Kyle Stelma of Dunia Frontier Consultants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUEHKUwVIsw
Iraq Needs More Statesmen and Fewer Politicians
We reported last week on the withdrawal of the Kazakhstan-based KazMunaiGas from negotiations on the Akkas gas field in Anbar province. This week the head of KMG, Askar Balzhanov, shed more light on the background to the company's decision, and it reflects very poorly on the Iraqi authorities: "One of the reasons for our withdrawal […]
Iraq Pays BP for Rumaila Production
BP lifted its first cargo of Basra light crude from Rumaila this week, according to a report in the Telegraph. The cargo is worth about $200m [240 billion Iraq dinars]. The company is working with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) on the field and the two companies are due $1bn for boosting production, drilling new […]
New Kuwaiti Port Could Scupper Iraq's Grand Faw
A few dozen Iraqis protested on Wednesday against Kuwaiti plans for a new port near Umm Qasr, Iraq’s only deep-water port. AKnews reports that public committees from Basra organized the protests to show public opposition against the Kuwaiti Mubarak port across the border. "Everyone knows that Kuwait does not need this port since it has […]
Wildcat Strikes Spread in Iraq
Iraqi state oil workers have tried to stop foreign workers entering the country's biggest oil field amid a country-wide dispute about pay, according to Iraq Oil Report. State workers have been protesting for some time about receiving lower pay than their colleagues at fields run by the international oil companies. In addition to the action […]
Weekly Security Update for 18th May 2011
Overview Levels of violence fell in Iraq last week, although there were still over 60 incidents recorded countrywide. There was a welcome fall in the number of casualties, and the week saw fewer fatalities than any recorded since February. Incidents were concentrated in Baghdad, which accounted for over half of all the attacks recorded countrywide. […]
Iraqi Media Woes
By Lisa Knight, Creative Director & Founder of The Brand Foundation. 250 journalists have been reported as being killed in Iraq since 2003 and in 2010 6 lost their lives in Iraq out of a total of 10 in the region. It is claimed that these tragic deaths are yet to be investigated by the […]
Citigroup Hires Diplomat to Spearhead Iraq Expansion
Bloomberg reports that Citigroup, the U.S. bank which earns about a $1 billion in revenue from the Middle East, has hired a former U.S. diplomat to oversee its team in Iraq as the holder of the world’s fourth-biggest oil reserves rebuilds its economy. “We are very optimistic about Iraq over the next three to five […]