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…

IDC’s Success Story

Iraq Drilling Co (IDC) is back in force and seems on the way to turn itself into a success story by teaming up with the big ones. After the short setback following the failed joint venture with Mesopotamia Petroleum, it has finally found the magic formula to play the leading role in the gigantic drilling effort that will take place across the Iraqi oil fields over the next few years….

Pioneer CNPC

Wasit Province – About 2,000 Chinese workers are about to descend on Al-Ahdab oil field next month to start work on the construction of the central production facility, engineer Ahmad Abdul Redha, the chief of Al-Ahdab section at North Oil Co (NOC) tells me during a tour of the fortress camp that CNPC’s subsidiary, Al-Waha Petroleum, built just 15 km to the west of Kut. With five rigs on the…