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…

Thamir Al-Ghadhban

Thamir al-Ghadhban, former Iraqi Minister of Oil and Chairman of the Advisory Commission at the Prime Minister’s office, gives his take on the latest developments in Iraq’s oil sector and analyses future trends in an interview in Baghdad with Ruba Husari. Q: How do you expect a new government following the March 7 legislative elections to deal with the signed contracts? Is there a risk that the legality of those…

The BP Prize

Once again, the results of Iraq’s first bid round proved that access to Mideast oil comes at a premium to international oil companies. Call it an entry fee for securing a foot in this vast oil hub. The prize is the giant Rumaila fields which despite producing since 1954 for South Rumaila and 1972 for its northern extension, still carry a huge potential but not without challenges. Oil in place…

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…