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 […]
ExxonMobil is in talks to sell its 60% stake in the massive West Qurna-1 oil field, while gearing up to start a controversial drilling program in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing what it described at "people familiar with the matter". Exxon's 2010 deal with the Iraqi central government to improve production in […]
Russia's LUKoil said on Tuesday that Iraq has not asked it to replace Exxon Mobil at the West Qurna-1 oilfield. Nefte Compass said last week that Iraq was considering replacing Exxon with either Russia's LUKoil and Gazprom Neft, but LUKoil Vice President Leonid Fedun (pictured) told Reuters: "No one has offered us West Qurna-1 ... […]
By John Lee. According to press reports, Iraq's South Oil Company (SOC) has awarded CH2M Hill a $170 million consultancy contract for the water injection project in the country's southern oil fields, replacing ExxonMobil. Al Bawaba quotes SOC Director General, Dhia Jaafar, as saying: "The South Oil Company has selected CH2M Hill to offer consultancy […]
