The Iraqi council of ministers has finally given its final stamp of approval today for the first gas deal of its kind in Iraq’s energy history based on the agreement initialized on July 12 between Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi and South Gas Co, to capture and process flared gas in southern Iraq. This deal would put Iraq on the global gas map, something long due in view of the country’s…
Category: The View from Baghdad
The weekly article from Baghdad
Exxon’s Leap into Kurdistan
It was only a question of time before it became public. ExxonMobil’s move into Kurdistan region of Iraq was surrounded with lots of hush hush from the time it signed in October, until the moment the ministry of natural resources (MNR) in the KRG decided to score a fantastic public relations coup. Now that it is public, where does this leave the regional and the federal governments and what fate…
2012 Production Challenge
Iraqi oil production has been slowly, but steadily, ramping up in the last three years, from an average of 2.336 million b/d in 2009 to 2.358 million b/d in 2010, to an average of 2.66 for the first eight months of this year, according to oil ministry official figures. With this, exports have also risen by almost 300,000 b/d, from a 2009 average of 1.9 million b/d in 2009 to…
Hydrocarbon Law 2011
Does Iraq still need a hydrocarbon law? According to Tariq Shafiq who co-authored the first version of Iraq’s Oil & Gas Law in 2006, yes it does. So do others including the Kurds who made its enactment one of the conditions for backing Nouri al-Maliki for PM last year, and the latter as well since he agreed to do it within six months of taking office. However, the recent revival…