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. […]
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. […]
Lord Howell of Guildford, UK Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, speaking at CWC‘s Iraq Petroleum 2012 conference in London, said the terms of offer for the next round of energy licences must be considerably better than those for the fourth round which concluded at the end of May. "The results of […]
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. […]
Iraq gave a veiled warning to France's Total on Wednesday not to make deals with the KRG without the approval of central government in Baghdad, reports Reuters. Kurdistan said on Tuesday it expects more oil majors to follow Exxon in striking deals in the region; Total has already said that it was interested. Iraqi Deputy […]
Reuters reports that the White House confirmed on Tuesday that President Barack Obama received a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to intervene to stop ExxonMobil's deal with the Kurdistan region. "We've received the letter but are going to decline comment until we respond to Prime Minister Maliki," said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor. […]
A plan to construct a new oil pipeline, with a capacity of 1 million barrels per day, between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey has drawn positive responses from many in the oil industry, according to a report from Investors Chronicle. Paul Atherton, finance chief of Heritage Resources, said: "This is an excellent opportunity for Heritage to […]
MP Firhad al-Atroushi of the Kurdistani Alliance, and a member of the Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee, has reportedly described Iraq's 4th round energy auction "a violation to the Iraqi Constitution." He added that it represents a legal problem since it is supposed to be overseen and supervised by the Parliament: "The Kurdistani Alliance has […]
Kurdistan's minister for natural resources, Ashti Hawrami (pictured), has said that Exxon Mobil is still operating in oil fields in the Kurdistan Region. According to the report from AKnews, his statement came in response to a remark by the Iraqi Oil Minister, Abdul-Kareem al-Luaibi [Elaibi], who told Arabic Sabah newspaper that the US company has suspended […]
Iraq has warned Turkey against following through with a deal to build new pipelines carrying oil and gas from Iraqi Kurdistan, reports International Business Times. Turkey signed the pipeline deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government on Sunday, bypassing the central government in Baghdad. The BBC quotes Ali al-Moussawi, an adviser to Iraq's president, as saying, […]
In a step that further builds its resource base in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Genel Energy announced on Monday that it is to acquire a 23 per cent stake in the Bina Bawi exploration licence. The Bina Bawi licence lies alongside the producing Taq Taq oilfield where current potential output is some 80,000 barrels […]
The battle for Iraq’s oil goes on. Iraqi Kurdistan is intent on controlling its own oil, Baghdad is intent on wresting that control from them. Will the impasse ever be solved? Only if both sides see reason, one commentator argues in this article from NIQASH. Ever since oil was found in Iraq nearly a century […]
