Halfaya Adds New Horizons

Halfaya oil field in Missan province is set to become the second green field to add significant production, after Ahdab, since Iraq’s oil ministry started awarding service contracts to international oil companies. A ceremony to celebrate the first commercial production from Halfaya field at a rate of 70,000 barrels per day, is set for July, the director general of Missan Oil Co (MOC) Ali Muarij tells me. With this new…

To Bid or Not To Bid

The first day of Iraq’s oil ministry’s fourth bid round confirmed what many people, including those who worked on the model technical service contract, had expected: conducting exploration and development on the terms offered under these contracts is going to be a hard sale. Kuwait Energy with its partners, Turkey’s TPAO and UAE’s Dragon Oil, was willing to play by what’s on the table to secure Block 9 because it…

Iraq Energy Outlook

A capacity of 6 million b/d though achievable but is not the answer to the state requirements of revenue, while 12 million b/d can’t be maintained for a long time and requires higher investment within a short number of years and involves a high risk if the markets cannot absorb it. Committing huge investments to end up with an idle capacity is not an ideal scenario for Iraq. In my…