Abdul Mahdi Al-Ameedi

Abdul Mahdi al-Ameedi, director general of Iraq’s oil ministry’s Petroleum Contracts & Licensing Dept. (PCLD), sheds light on the ministry’s fourth bid round scheduled for May30-31, and the service contract on offer, its advantages and shortcomings, in an interview with IOF editor Ruba Husari in Baghdad. (للنص العربي اضغط هنا) Q: Offering a service contract type with a fixed fee for oil and gas exploration work is unusual and almost…

Iraq’s Strategy and Reserves Replacement

Reserves replacement is to be taken seriously from a strategic planning point of view. As the country has embarked on a substantial program to build up Iraq’s crude oil and gas production capacity in cooperation with international oil companies, the fifteen oil fields to be developed and produced in accordance with the twelve contracts contain some 100 billion barrels of proven reserves based on the reserves revision released by the…

Gas Exploration, A Government Priority?

As Iraq’s third bid round for gas field development drags on, mired by successive delays, with no viable commercial structure in the draft model contract and confusion over the utilization of gas to be produced, Iraq’s next government is better off focusing on increasing Iraq’s gas reserves by launching an exploration drive to find new gas resources and develop them. Iraq has 65 defined exploration blocks on its maps, the…