After two delayed dates and three model contracts issued, one of which was withdrawn, Iraq has finally awarded its three gas fields of Akkas, Mansuriah and Siba to small oil companies pushing for a foot in Iraq’s energy sector. Having pre-qualified 13 companies, including France’s Total, Italy’s ENI and Norway’s Statoil, only five companies finally made it to Baghdad on Oct. 20th to participate in Iraq’s 3rd bid round in…
Category: The View from Baghdad
The weekly article from Baghdad
Reserves Politics
Iraq’s newly announced proven oil reserves figure of 143.1 billion barrels is most likely closer to the reality than the old one of 115 billion bbls minus what has been produced since the last revision, which is put at 5 billion bbls. But the question is how did Iraq arrive at this magic number without new exploration or new discoveries and while 3-D seismic surveys for the southern oil fields…
Gas Exploration, A Government Priority?
As Iraq’s third bid round for gas field development drags on, mired by successive delays, with no viable commercial structure in the draft model contract and confusion over the utilization of gas to be produced, Iraq’s next government is better off focusing on increasing Iraq’s gas reserves by launching an exploration drive to find new gas resources and develop them. Iraq has 65 defined exploration blocks on its maps, the…
A History of Waste
Iraq is struggling between the urge to become a regional – and eventually an international – player on the gas scene and the need to supply a domestic market whose demand for gas for power generation is expected to continue rising drastically. That urge is exacerbated by the KRG’s ability to conclude swift deals to export gas regardless of whether such deals – which, like exporting oil, would require state…