Category: featured

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New Oil Licensing Round Delayed by Elections

By John Lee.

Platts reports that the final details of Iraq’s latest oilfield licensing round will not be completed by the planned date of July, due to the upcoming elections.

Abdul Mahdy Al-Ameedi, Director General of the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate (PCLD) told the CWC Iraq Petroleum Conference in Berlin:

“The timing may extend a bit especially as the whole project is connected with elections in April and May …

“Comments have been made by specialists in order to reorder contracts to include all the commitments and provisions I doubt that we will finish by July 5. It will take time but it will be done.“

The list of qualified companies can be found here.

(Source: Platts)

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Video: Iraq lures Investors to Boost Oil, Gas Output

From Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Iraq is hoping to lure international investors to help develop its oil and gas industry.

With victory declared over fighters from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), government ministers are meeting oil executives in Berlin to discuss how to exploit its vast reserves.

Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane reports from Berlin:

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Iran-Iraq Oil Swap Delayed over Safety Concerns

By John Lee.

A plan to export Iraqi crude oil by truck to Iran has reportedly been postponed due to security concerns.

Under the oil-swap agreement, Iraq was to export 60,000 bpd of crude oil by truck from Kirkuk to Iran’s Kermanshah refinery (pictured), and ship back refined Iranian oil for southern Iraq.

Hamid Hosseini, the Iranian secretary-general of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce, said Iran does not have X-ray machines to scan the trucks coming from Iraq, adding that Iran is in talks with Iraq to use their X-ray facilities.

(Sources: Xinhua, Rudaw)

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Report: Shaping Iraq’s Oil and Gas Future

By John Lee.

A new report for the Atlantic Council argues that gas, being less politically fraught than oil, has the potential to serve as a key area of cooperation between Baghdad and Erbil and could help improve the reliability of electricity supply.

In Shaping Iraq’s Oil and Gas Future, Ellen Scholl recommends that:

  1. Baghdad and Erbil must get the incentive structure right. Part of the incentive structure should include supportive gas pricing.
  2. Institutions should mirror ambition.
  3. Baghdad and Erbil should take a comprehensive approach to developing and integrating infrastructure throughout the supply chain, including mid- and downstream infrastructure.

The full report can be downloaded here.

(Source: Atlantic Council)

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Qayara Refinery available for Investment

By John Lee.

The Ministry of Oil has announced an opportunity to invest in a 100,000-bpd refinery at the Qayara field in Ninawa governorate.

In a statement, the Ministry said:

The execution is according to the methods of BOOT or BOO and according to the investment law of the refineries No.64 for the year 2007 and its amendments.

The products of the refinery must be environment friendly according to the international standards.

The tax breaks must be according to the investment law No.13 for the year 2006.

In accordance with the second amendment of the investment law No.64 for the year 2007. The subtraction on the crude oil price over the ship is (8%) “The subtraction must be more than 5$ and less than 10$ of the global price”.

The studies, planning and follow-up directorate in the ministry of oil have prepared the data portfolio of the refinery and the price of the data portfolio shall be (30) thousand dollars “nonrefundable”.

The closing date of selling data portfolios is at the end of the work hours of Sunday the 1st of April 2018.

–  The receipt of the documents from the companies which would like to invest in the above mentioned refinery must be to the end of the work hours of Sunday the 15th of May 2018.

The presentation of the documents will be to the Studies Planning & Follow-up Directorate directly in a closed envelop. Otherwise the documents will be rejected.

For further information please contact the E-mails (studies@oil.gov.iq) or (studies.oil@gmail.com).

(Source: Ministry of Oil)

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Chevron Resumes Drilling in Kurdistan

By John Lee.

Chevron has reportedly announced that it had resumed drilling operations at the Sarta-3 well in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The US company temporarily suspended operations in October following the controversial independence referendum, which increased tensions between Baghdad and Erbil.

According to Kurdistan 24, it currently operates and holds an 80-percent contractor interest in two production-sharing contracts covering the Sarta and Qara Dagh blocks.

(Sources: Reuters, Kurdistan 24)

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Baghdad keen to Restart Oil Exports through Turkey

By John Lee.

Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi [Allibi, Luiebi] is to visit Turkey this week to discuss expanding cooperation in the oil and energy sector.

Among the topics for discussion will be the possible restarting of oil exports via the Turkish port of Ceyhan (pictured), and the export the Iraqi oil “by SOMO company exclusively”.

He will also invite Turkish companies to participate in investment projects in the oil sector.

(Source: Ministry of Oil)

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Natural Gas Must Be an Asset for Iraq

By Alessandro Bacci.

Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

On February 27-28, 2018, the C.W.C. Group, an energy and infrastructure conference, exhibition and training company, will organize in Berlin, Germany, the twelfth edition of Iraq Petroleum, which is one of the major events concerning Iraq’s oil and gas sector.

One of the main topics of Iraq Petroleum 2018 will be the development of Iraq’s natural gas reserves with the specific goal of strengthening energy-intensive industries to diversify the Iraqi economy.

In Iraq, natural gas might really be the key driver to develop additional industrial sectors. In fact, natural gas may be used for power generation (electricity), petrochemicals, fertilizers, and other heavy industries in which gas is the primary feedstock.

In this regard, some analysts might object that the development of these new industrial sectors would not really change the picture for Iraq because its economic development would still be too linked to the oil and gas sector—in practice Iraq’s economy would continue to be overaffected by the price of oil and gas.

This observation is by no means wrong, but it’s also true that, apart from increasing oil exports (and in this regard, it will be important to see how Iraq will deal in the future with OPEC’s quota restrictions) to improve its economic standing Iraq does not have many alternatives to developing its natural gas resources and then using them to add other industrial sectors to the economy.

Please click here to download the full report.

Alessandro Bacci is an independent energy consultant in relation to business strategy and corporate diplomacy (policy, government, and public affairs). Much of his activity is linked to the MENA region, an area where he lived for four years. Alessandro is now based in London, United Kingdom (www.alessandrobacci.com). A multilingual professional, Alessandro holds a Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws from the University of Florence (Italy), a Master in Public Affairs from Sciences Po (France), and a Master in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore).    

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KRG pays Genel under Receivable Settlement Agreement

Genel Energy plc has announced that it has received an override payment of $7.05 million from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The payment represents 4.5% of Tawke gross field revenues for the month of November 2017, as per the terms of the Receivable Settlement Agreement. 

Taken together with the monthly entitlement payments for Taq Taq and Tawke announced yesterday, Genel’s net share of payments relating to November 2017 exports totals $26.81 million.

(Source: Genel Energy)

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Iraq to Increase Oil Capacity by 40%

By John Lee.

Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi [Allibi, Luiebi] (pictured) has said Iraq plans to increase its crude oil production capacity from 5 million bpd at present to 7 million bpd by 2022.

According to a report from Reuters, he added that Iraq needs $4 billion for new investments in its downstream oil industry, lifting refining capacity to 1.5 million bpd by 2021.

It said the increase in refining capacity would come from seven projects, some of them new and some involving the expansion of existing refineries.

(Source: Reuters)