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 […]
By John Lee. Iraq is considering replacing ExxonMobil at the supergiant West Qurna-1 oilfield with Russian companies LUKoil and Gazprom Neft, according to a report from Nefte Compass. Iraq regards Exxon's contracts in the northern Kurdish region of the country as illegal. But if any agreement was reached at this week's meeting between Iraqi Prime […]
By Waheed Ghanim. 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. Basra’s farmers say the oil industry is “occupying” their land – and that the one thing the Iraqi government is forgetting in its race to get […]
By John Lee. Turkey has started importing the crude oil from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and will hold negotiations over direct sales to the natural gas. The Turkish Energy Minister said in a press conference on Friday that "Turkey has started importing five to ten trucks of crude oil per day from Kurdistan, and […]
By John Lee. Shares in Afren, the U.K.-based oil and gas company with operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, gave up some of their recent gains on Wednesday, but were still nearly 10% up on Monday's intra-day low on speculation of a takeover offer. According to This is Money, rumours were rife that Italy's ENI, and Exxon […]
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister says ExxonMobil is still engaged with the West Qurna-1 oil-field in the south of the country. At CWC‘s Iraq Petroleum 2012 conference in London last week, Dr Rowsch N Shaways told Padraig O’Hannelly for Iraq Business News : "To my knowledge, Exxon is still operating in the South, with current contracts. […]
Advertising Feature Iraq Business News is delighted to bring you the latest Iraq Market Tracker report from Dunia Frontier Consultants. The market tracker highlights the activities and market performance of a basket of publicly traded firms who derive a significant percentage of their revenues from operations in Iraq, but are traded on foreign exchanges: a […]
The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. […]
