By John Lee. The Chief Executive of Italian oil and gas group Eni says the company does not plan to compromise its business in Iraq by making energy deals with Kurdistan. Paolo Scaroni (pictured) said that one of the conditions for developing the Zubair field was that there could be no deals with local governments […]
By John Lee. Kurdistan's Minister for Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami (pictured), has hit back at reports that the US has warned oil companies not to sign any oil deals with Kurdistan without Baghdad's approval or Baghdad may take legal action against them. According to AKnews, Hawrami described the media reports quoting Nuland as "baseless ….These […]
By John Lee. Genel Energy has increased its commitment to oil exploration in Iraqi Kurdistan with the announcement that it has agreed to acquire an additional 26 per cent interest in the Miran exploration block from Heritage Oil. The announcement comes just a day after the Kurdistan Regional Government's Oil and Gas Council approved the […]
By John Lee. At the US State Department's Daily Press Briefing on Monday, Spokesperson Victoria Nuland was asked to clarify the US Government's official position on oil contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Our position on this has not changed", she said. "We’ve spoken about it many times here. We speak about it in Iraq. With regard […]
By John Lee. Shares in ShaMaran Petroleum were down 13% on Monday following the announcement that the company has sold its entire 20% undivided participating interest in the Taza PSC (held by the fully-owned subsidiary ShaMaran Petroleum B.V.) to a subsidiary of Total S.A. for the cash sum of US$ 48 million plus a reimbursement […]
By John Lee. Iraqi authorities have warned France's Total that it must freeze its energy deal with Iraqi Kurdistan or sell its stake in the Halfaya oilfield, reports Reuters. Faisal Abdullah, a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, said: "Iraq has officially asked Total to freeze or cancel its contract with the […]
By John Lee. Shares in WesternZagros Resources hit a two-and-a-half-year high of Cdn$1.38 on Tuesday after the company announced that it has signed a strategic investment agreement with Crest Energy International LLC, under which Crest will purchase, through a non-brokered, private placement, 40,714,286 Common Shares of the Company at Cdn$1.40 per share for gross proceeds […]
Just days after agreeing to re-start oil exports from the Kurdistan region, Ashti Hawrami (pictured), the KRG's Minister of Natural Resources, said the region would halt oil exports at the end of the month if Baghdad does not make all outstanding payments to companies working in the oil sector in the region by that time. […]
By John Lee. Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region will resume in the first week of August, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has announced, adding that the decision was a confidence-building measure aimed at solving once and for all the ongoing oil and gas issues in Iraq. The MNR said that despite initial reluctance […]
By Padraig O'Hannelly. Tensions between Iraqi Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad have increased significantly in recent times, both politically and commercially. On the political front, the "difference of opinion" about the sending of Iraqi troops to the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Syria was eclipsed by reports that the Kurdistan Regional Government has […]
By John Lee. The Iraqi Oil Ministry has re-confirmed that Chevron is barred from contracts with the Federal Goverment in Baghdad, and says the company "should be ashamed of their action" in dealing with the Kurdistan Regional Government, which it accuses of smuggling. The Ministry issued the following statement on Wednesday: Chevron Oil Company announced […]
By John Lee. Abdul-Mahdy al-Ameedi, the director of the Iraqi oil ministry's contracts directorate, has said that Iraq will soon set a date for international oil companies (IOCs) to bid to develop the giant Nassiriya oilfield. The largely undeveloped field has estimated reserves of just under 5 billion barrels. According to information from Reuters, there […]
