By John Lee. Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Hatta Rajasa (pictured), has said Pertamina is considering taking a stake of up to 20 percent in the West Qurna-I block, which is owned by Exxon Mobil. According to a report from Fox Business, Mr. Rajasa told reporters: "Exxon has got a new oil field in […]
The Chairman of PetroChina has told Reuters that his company is willing to join Exxon Mobil in the 400,000-bpd West Qurna-1 oilfield project. Jiang Jiemin (pictured) told the news agency: "We are willing to jointly develop the project with Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil welcomed our participation and the Iraqi government also supports us joining the […]
By John Lee. Exxon Mobil has begun exploration for oil in Kurdistan Region, according to a report from PUKmedia. Safeen Dezae, Spokesman for the KRG, told the news agency that the company began its first stage of exploration with the scoping of locations; the second stage will involve exploratory drilling. Regarding the impact of the […]
By John Lee. Oil giant ExxonMobil has reportedly hired former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James Jeffrey (pictured), as a consultant. The company was recently told that it must choose between working in Iraq's southern oilfields, where it operates the $50 billion West Qurna 1 oilfield, or in Kurdistan, where it has signed exploration deals. Exxon’s […]
By John Lee. Iraq has again told Exxon Mobil that it must choose between working in its southern oilfields or in Kurdistan. Reuters reports that Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi [Elaibi] expects the company to make a final decision within a few days, adding: "We made it clear to Exxon in the last meeting that the […]
By John Lee. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held talks with ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson (pictured) on Monday. AFP reports that the meeting was the first between the two since the firm signed an oil exploration agreement with Kurdistan in October 2011, a move which angered Baghdad, which has said the company must choose between its deals with […]
By John Lee. Russian’s LUKoil is said to be studying documents on Iraq’s West Qurna-1 oil field, with a view to possibly taking over ExxonMobil's stake. Bloomberg quotes Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov (pictured) as saying that the company will make a decision on possible participation in the project by the end of the year. […]
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain Shahristani speaks to Reuters about crude production in the country and the global oil market outlook. (Source: Reuters)
By Abdul-Khaleq Dosky. This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The tension between Iraqi Kurdistan and the leadership in Baghdad doesn’t seem to have diminished lately. NIQASH asked the Iraqi Kurdish why the Russians and Exxon […]
By Padraig O'Hannelly. On the day Iraq announced that Exxon Mobil wants to abandon its business in southern Iraq in favour of potentially more profitable contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Oil Ministry has cancelled a major exploration deal with Turkey's TPAO. The reasons were described as "non-technical", with the decision coming from the cabinet; the […]
By John Lee. Exxon Mobil has informed the Iraqi government that it wants to pull out of the $50-billion West Qurna-1 oilfield project, according to a report from Reuters. Abdul Mahdi Al Ameedi, director of the oil ministry’s Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate (PCLD), said: "Exxon has stated in its letter that it has started discussions […]
The dispute between Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government over oil contracts in northern Iraq has been dragging on for years, but it recent times we've seen developments that push the sides further apart rather than bringing them together. While the short-term issue of payments for shipments from Iraqi Kurdistan appears to have […]
