Iraqi Drilling Firm Gets a Makeover

23 July 2008 State Iraq Drilling Co. (IDC), one of 14 oil firms under oil ministry supervision, is setting up a joint venture with UK-based Mesopotamia Petroleum Co. (MPC) to carry out drilling services in Iraq, Iraqi officials told International Oil Daily in Baghdad last week. IDC is meanwhile upgrading its rig fleet, buying 19 new rigs that should start arriving in September, the officials said. Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani…

Iraq Buys Favor With China on Al-Ahdab

27 March 2007 The Iraqi government decided to renegotiate an old production sharing contract which had been signed by China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to develop the 90,000 barrel per day Al-Ahdab oil field with the former Iraqi regime “for political and legal reasons” rather than retender, a senior Iraqi government official told International Oil Daily late last week. CNPC officials traveled to Baghdad earlier this month for a first…

Iraq Seeks New Refineries, Export Pipes

12 September 2006 Iraq is embarking on new projects to add refining capacity and build new pipelines, in a bid to meet domestic fuel needs, insure stable exports from northern oil fields, and raise overall export capacity to 3 million barrels per day within the next five years, according to Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani. Baghdad has revived refinery upgrade plans that were tendered in several packages over the past…

Two Years On, Iraq Output Still Struggling

9 March 2005 Almost two years after the US-led war ousted the Baath regime, Iraq is still struggling to meet prewar production levels at its dilapidated oil fields. Iraq’s southern oil fields, which accounted for the majority of prewar production of 2.8 million barrels per day, are currently managing just 1.85 million b/d — and even this rate is causing great distress to reservoirs, Iraq’s interim Oil Minister Thamer al-Ghadban…