After negotiations nearly fell apart two weeks ago, the French firm gave until Feb. 15 to finalize a deal — a deadline now extended by one month.
The Oil Ministry is considering a backup plan of offering the gas field in a new contract licensing round.
A long-delayed upgrade of Iraq's largest refinery is now moving forward, promising to boost high-octane fuel production and reduce dependence on imports.
Payment delays to oil companies and bureaucratic disarray have kept the KRG from meeting its own ambitious target for ending the wasteful and polluting practice at several fields.
ExxonMobil is aiming to sell its stake to two buyers, Pertamina and Iraq’s state-run BOC, leaving PetroChina to take over as operator.
Both federal and KRG oil sales fell slightly as OPEC-plus gave no sign of lifting production caps.
The Sudani administration appears to be pushing forward long-delayed plans to develop Iraq’s upstream and downstream gas sector.
More than 400,000 bpd of crude exports are back online after Turkish authorities determined there was no major damage to the pipeline to Ceyhan.
Precautionary outage is expected to be temporary as Turkish authorities work to confirm pipelines, pumping stations, and export infrastructure were not damaged.
"Goodwill gesture" keeps the door open to further negotiations ahead of a Feb. 15 deadline, but key points of contention still appear unresolved.
