Gulf Keystone doubles down on Kurdistan
Despite risks above and below the ground, Gulf Keystone is gambling that Kurdistan's seas of underground oil will yield big returns.
A worker descends the Gulf Keystone drilling platform at Shaikan 5. (SEBASTIAN MEYER/Iraq Oil Report/Metrography)
SHAIKAN - On a hilltop at Shaikan, one of Iraqi Kurdistan's biggest oil fields, the drillmaster on a Gulf Keystone rig faced a dilemma at Well No. 5.
As the drill tore deeper through the earth, drilling fluid that was supposed to return to the surface was instead being lost into the myriad fractures in the rock. The company was forced to alter its composition of water and chemicals - and to slow the drilling down.
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