A Shell Stunt

After watching Royal Dutch Shell go for the kill on Majnoon oil field, I’m stunned and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I expected companies to try and undercut each other to win one of the fields offered in the second bid round, before the door of Iraq oil closes again. But I didn’t expect them to go way below the maximum remuneration fee the oil ministry was willing…

2nd Bid Round: D-day

Realism should be of order on Dec. 11 as international oil companies converge on Iraq’s oil ministry headquarters to make their last bid to enter Iraq while the door is still open. The 10 contracts on offer over the two days of Iraq’s second bid round will include the last Iraqi oil fields to be tendered to foreign firms for a long time to come. While still awash with undeveloped…

Early Bonanza

There is a bonanza for international oil companies who managed to make an early entry into Iraq. Operators like BP, Eni, Exxon Mobil – and to a certain extent CNPC which managed to convert its 1997 production sharing agreement for the development of Al-Ahdab field into a service contract last year – will have first call on the limited infrastructure capacity to absorb the new crude they will start pumping…