Trickling Production

Things are happening at Nassiriya oil field in southern Iraq. The field, which accounts for some 4.3 billion barrels of oil reserves, has become the latest oil field to start production in recent days, albeit at a moderate pilot rate of 20,000 b/d. Nassiriya was discovered by Iraq National Oil Co (INOC) in 1975 and remained undeveloped for more than three decades after the drilling of the first exploration well…

Jabbar Al-Luaibi

Former Director General of South Oil Co and oil ministry advisor Jabbar al-Luaibi discusses in an interview with Ruba Husari in Dubai May 16, 2009 the state of the oil fields in southern Iraq and the reasons behind the recent loss in production capacity at Iraq’s major producing oil fields.   Q: You brought the oil sector back from the ashes in 2003 and ramped up production till you achieved…

Buying Time

29 September 2006 It will be 2008, at the earliest, before Iraq’s southern provinces unite to form the giant oil-rich federal region that some Iraqi groups are calling for. That’s the deal reached this week by Shiite and Sunni lawmakers which, for now at least, averts further ethnic and religious strife over a Shiite-backed law outlining the mechanisms whereby Iraq’s provinces can form autonomous regions. But the arrangement, brokered by…

Iraq Starts Countdown for Contract Awards

14 October 2008 Iraq’s oil ministry on Monday launched a competition among 35 international oil companies for six of Iraq’s most prized oil fields and two undeveloped gas fields under 20-year service contracts, which Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said he expects to be “finalized and presented to the Iraqi cabinet for ratification before the end of June.” Prequalified companies for Iraq’s first bid round, including all the majors as…