Exxon, Conoco Both Score Firsts in Baghdad

13 August 2008 US majors are adopting a more aggressive approach toward Iraq. Jim Mulva, chief executive of ConocoPhillips, this month became the highest-ranking US company executive to visit the country since the war, while Exxon Mobil has submitted the first one-year no-fee technical support contract (TSC) to the oil ministry, Iraqi sources said Tuesday. A Conoco spokeswoman in Houston confirmed the visit, Mulva’s first to Iraq. “As customary in…

Iraq Focuses On Pilot Projects To Counter Big Field Declines

8 July 2005 Iraq’s South Oil Co. (SOC) is launching a handful of pilot production projects at oil fields in southern Iraq, in an attempt to compensate for declines at its large producing fields, according to local industry sources. The big-field problems have been exacerbated by a lack of funds for drilling new wells and working over existing wells, as well as delays in implementing water injection projects. The major…

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,…