Energy

Iraq seeks backup options for West Qurna 2

As a sanctions deadline looms, Basra Oil Company is poised to manage the 480,000 bpd field while Lukoil continues negotiating to sell its stake.

A ceremony at the West Qurna 2 oil field in Basra to mark the opening of two new well complexes on June 1, 2023. (JASSIM AL-JABIRI/Iraq Oil Report)

Aug 31, 2008

Iraqi contracts develop as oil begins to move

Lebanon hopes to sign a deal with Iraq in the next two months to buy crude oil below market prices, after Baghdad agreed to sell oil to Jordan at $22 a barrel, Bloomberg's Massoud A. Derhally reported. "We are hoping for a similar agreement,'' Lebanese Minister of Finance Mohamad Chatah, 57, said in an interview […]

Aug 28, 2008

Iraqi oil exports up for July

The Iraqi Oil Ministry says that oil exports in July inched up to 58.8 million barrels — a 0.7 percent increase from the previous month, the AP reported. The statement says the barrel was sold at an average price of $113.8 and yielded $6.692 billion. June's price stood at $123 a barrel. The statement adds […]

Aug 26, 2008

Iraq power generation at 2003 levels

Iraq is now producing as much power as it did on the eve of the US-led invasion of 2003 but is still meeting barely 50 percent of peak demand, a senior electricity ministry official said. "2008 is the first year when production has reached the level prior to that of Saddam Hussein's fall," the ministry's […]

Aug 21, 2008

Iraqi oil contracts ebb and flow

The long-suffering bill that would govern Iraq's oil industry and divvy up oil wealth has been stalled more than a year, bogged down in political squabbling and symbolic of problems rippling below the surface here despite success on the security front. Just last year, U.S. and Iraqi officials repeatedly announced that passage of the oil […]

Aug 19, 2008

China lands Iraqi oil contract – but U.S. still gets its crude

Iraq will sign a $1.2 billion oil service contract with China to replace a production-sharing deal agreed under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi newspaper, an-Noor said, quoting oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani. The oil minister is travelling to China at the end of this month to discuss the deal, which was orginally signed in 1997 between Iraq […]

Aug 17, 2008

Iraqi oil contracts fizzle

Iraq is likely to abandon plans to sign up to $3 billion in short-term oil contracts, a U.S. diplomat said, putting in doubt deals that would give foreign oil firms their first major foothold in the country for decades, Missy Ryan reports for Reuters. "It appears that on present form (the Iraqi government) probably won't […]

Aug 14, 2008

Haliburton, Dana move on Iraq deals

Dana Gas, the United Arab Emirates-based oil and gas company, will start natural gas production from a gas field in northern Iraq in September and is preparing to drill appraisal wells at a second field next year, a top company executive said Thursday. The Abu Dhabi stock market-listed firm will start production of 75 million […]

Aug 12, 2008

Iraqi tecnical services contracts stalled

Oil negotiations between a handful of foreign companies and the government here appear stalled, setting back once again efforts to open up Iraqi oil fields to international companies, writes Gina Chon for The Wall Street Journal. Oil Ministry officials had said they hoped to sign contracts by the end of June. That deadline came and […]

Aug 10, 2008

Iraq resumes oil exploration

Iraq said it was resuming exploration of its immense oil reserves after a break of nearly 20 years due to crippling UN sanctions, saying it hopes to double its proven deposits of crude. "Today the Iraqi oil ministry celebrates a return to work by Iraqi oil exploration teams after 20 years of interruption," ministry spokesman […]

Aug 7, 2008

Iraq oil refineries eye upgrades as exports slip

Iraq's Cabinet has approved a multimillion dollar contract to upgrade an oil refinery in southern Iraq, The Associated Press reported. The $81-million contract will be awarded jointly to the U.S.-based Colorado Industrial Construction Services Co. (CICSCO) and CH2M HILL's affiliate VECO Co. for the production of gasoline from the Samawah refinery, according to the official, […]