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…

Reversing A Trend

Basrah – On the face of it and just listening to Iraqi oil officials describing their new ventures in Rumaila, it would appear as if BP is revolutionizing the way oil is produced in Iraq’s biggest and oldest fields. In reality, much of the work underway aims at reversing the trend of continuous malpractice imposed by years of war and sanctions. This covers all aspects of the production process from…

Iraq Votes

The polls are closed and it wasn’t the carnage some were expecting it to be. True, it is quite disturbing to wake up to the sound of mortars on elections day. But that’s not surprising, this is Baghdad after all. Bottom line, Iraq has voted for the second full-term parliament since 2003 despite the threats, the intimidations, the chaos, the interference, and the “de-baathification” saga by the “not so” independent…