Iraq’s New Oil Manager Spells Out Plans

6 May 2003 The new chief executive of the Iraqi oil sector, Thamer al-Ghadban, issued instructions to his staff Sunday to draw up an accelerated plan setting oil production targets for an interim period of several months. In an interview with International Oil Daily, the first since the Saturday announcement of his appointment by the US-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) as chief executive of the interim management…

At Iraq’s Big Kirkuk Field, Oil Flows but Damage Still a Problem

2 May 2003 Crude oil production from Iraq’s northern Kirkuk oil complex has been ramped up to 60,000 barrels per day this week and is likely to rise to at least 130,000 b/d once the first crude oil unit at the Baiji refinery becomes operational again, an official of North Oil Co. (NOC) said Thursday. “We started initial production at 20,000 b/d on Apr. 24 and are currently producing 60,000…

Oil Assessment Work Gets Going in North Iraq

2 May 2003 A team from US Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) on Thursday started assessment work at Iraq’s northern oil fields, as part of a contract the company holds with the US military, a KBR official told International Oil Daily on the scene. “We are looking at various units and assessing oil and gas production facilities in coordination with [Iraq’s] North Oil Co. (NOC) management,” Rick Hopper,…

Oil Board Firms Up in Iraq; Somo Shattered

1 May 2003 US plans to set up an advisory board to oversee Iraq’s oil sector are taking shape. Fadhil Othman, a retired Iraqi oil marketing official now living in Turkey, is understood to have accepted Washington’s request that he serve as deputy head of the oil advisory board, a non-executive body. In view of Othman’s past experience as head of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (Somo), he “could be…