Cursor International executes projects and collaboration activities across several industries.
By John Lee.
Lukoil is reportedly having difficulties staffing its operations in Iraq due to coronavirus and associated restrictions.
Interfax cited chief executive Vagit Alekperov (pictured) was quoted as saying that the company has a problem with replacing shift workers, adding, “We are reaching deals with people to keep them on for shifts that are 60 days long or more.“
The Russian-based company operates the West Qurna 2 oilfield in Basra, one of the world’s largest fields.
(Source: Reuters)
On April 20, 2020, IRIS held a webinar entitled Iraq’s Economy: Spotlight on Oil and Gas.
The discussion focused on Iraq’s economy amidst falling oil prices and additional pressures from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Speakers included IRIS Senior Fellow and AFC Iraq Fund Chief Investment Officer Ahmed Tabaqchali, Iraq Correspondent for Associated Press (AP) Samya Kullab, and MENA Programme Manager at the International Energy Agency (IEA) Ali Al-Saffar.
The discussion was moderated by IRIS Director Mac Skelton:
By John Lee.
Shares in Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) were up around 10 percent on Thursday morning, following the company’s announcement of its results for the year ended 31 December 2019.
Jón Ferrier (pictured), Gulf Keystone’s Chief Executive Officer, said:
“2019 saw a step change in activity at Shaikan; we delivered production and controlled expenditures in line with guidance, returned just under $100 million to our shareholders, and maintained a strong balance sheet with cash of $164 million at 22 April 2020.
“The current oil price and macro-economic uncertainty continues to have profound, far-reaching effects. We have taken concrete steps to protect value and assure the viability and financial strength of our business, both for today and the longer-term. As previously announced, we have suspended guidance and, while we were on-track to achieve 55,000 bopd in Q3 2020, we have stopped further expansion activity and are currently demobilising the team until circumstances improve. While we have secured ongoing production operations, we continue to closely monitor market dynamics and will take appropriate further actions to preserve value.
“We continue to focus on strict financial discipline and maintaining our strong balance sheet. GKP remains underpinned by Shaikan, which continues to perform in line with expectations, and we look forward to resuming expansion activity and delivering the underlying value of the field for all stakeholders upon resolution of the outstanding payments from the Kurdistan Regional Government (“KRG”) and an improvement in economic conditions.”
Highlights to 31 December 2019 and post reporting period
Operational
Financial
Outlook
The Company’s 2019 Full Year Results presentation is available on the investor relations section of the website: https://www.gulfkeystone.com/
(Source: GKP)
From Middle East Monitor, under a Creative Commons licence. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Iraq reduces energy imports from Iran by 75%
Iraq has reduced its electricity and gas imports from Iran by 75 per cent after achieving a strong level of self-sufficiency in its own energy production, Al Arab news website reported on Monday.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, Ahmed Al-Abadi, said that the current electricity production in Iraq covers most of the country’s needs.
He explained that most governorates have electricity supplies all day, every day, apart from Salahuddin and Ninawa, which have power for around 20 hours per day.
Al-Abadi noted that the improvement in electricity supply is largely down to the new electricity plants coming into operation.
Iraq, he added, uses 13,400 Megawatts, of which 4,500 Megawatts used to be imported from Iran.
From Middle East Monitor, under a Creative Commons licence. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
An official Kurdish delegation arrived on Sunday in the Iraqi capital Baghdad to discuss oil production.
“The delegation, led by the Kurdistan government’s Finance Minister, Awat Sheikh Janab, will discuss the federal budget, low oil prices, and the region’s participation in the Iraqi commitment to reduce oil production in accordance with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s decision,” Kurdish Prime Minister Khalid Shwani told reporters.
The Kurdistan Region recently said it would export “250,000 barrels per day of oil to Baghdad to support the Iraqi federal budget.”
“The region must abide by the federal government’s decision to reduce crude oil production,” Shwani stressed.
Oil prices have fallen sharply since Russia and OPEC countries failed to agree on an additional 1.5 million barrels per day of oil production cuts in early March. Concerns over the market impact of the global coronavirus outbreak are compounding the price fall.
Saudi Arabia-led OPEC and Russia-led non-OPEC oil producing countries – a grouping known as OPEC+ that pumps over 40 per cent of the world’s oil – agreed earlier this month to new oil production cuts which will come into effect in May and are expected to stabilise prices.
By John Lee.
Two rockets have reportedly struck near a Chinese oil facility south of Baghdad on Saturday.
According to AP, there were no casualties.
It cites an Iraqi army statement saying the rockets struck near a Chinese company in the Nahrawan area, and speculates that the company involved is ZhenHua, a subsidiary of the arms manufacturer Norinco, which has been working in the nearby East Baghdad oil field.
(Source: AP)
By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.
Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Oil Market Collapse, Damages the Iraqi Economy and Changes Oil Geopolitics
The collapse of the global oil market is undoubtedly unprecedented in its timing, magnitude, spread and devastating impacts across the globe. A strange and unpredicted association of a few, but major, factors had contributed to the current threat, causing much uncertainty and vulnerability on national and global levels.
The revised “OPEC+” production cut agreed on 12 April prompted initial minor improvement in oil price, but there remains very many serious concerns that such reduction is much below what is needed to bring stability to and balances a saturated global oil market.
This article aims at estimating the collapse in oil market on Iraq first then on both Russia and Saudi Arabia, as they are accused for “OPEC+” failure early last March that ignited the oil price war, and assesses the geopolitical and political economy consideration that contributed to and further complicate the impasse. The article provides a summary of two articles written and published in Arabic recently and an update on recent deliberation by “OPEC+” and G20 Energy Ministers to rescue the situation and bring some stability to global oil market under existing threat of Coronavirus to the world biosecurity.
My two articles attempt to provide comparative assessment of the impact of the collapse with particular focus on short-term horizon, i.e., the remaining nine months of this year under different Brent oil price scenarios on Iraq, first article , while the second focuses on Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Click here to download the full report in pdf format.
Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with the former Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: mou-jiya(at)online.no, Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad). Read more of Mr Jiyad’s biography here.
Report on payments to governments for the year 2019
Introduction and basis for preparation
This report sets out details of the payments made to governments by Genel Energy plc and its subsidiary undertakings (‘Genel’) for the year ended 31 December 2019 as required under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the ‘DTRs’) and in accordance with our interpretation of the Industry Guidance issued for the UK’s Report on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014, as amended in December 2015 (‘the Regulations’).
The DTRs require companies in the UK and operating in the extractives sector to publicly disclose payments made to governments in the countries where they undertake exploration, prospection, development and extraction of oil and natural gas deposits or other materials.
This report is available to download at www.genelenergy.com/investor-relations/results-reports-presentations.
Governments
All of the payments made in relation to licences in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (‘KRI’) have been made to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government (‘KRG’).
Production entitlements
Production entitlements are the host government’s share of production during the reporting period from projects operated by Genel. Production entitlements from projects that are not operated by Genel are not covered by this report. The figures reported have been produced on an entitlement basis rather than on a liftings basis. Production entitlements are paid in-kind and the monetary value disclosed is derived from management’s calculation of revenue from the field.
Royalties
Royalties represent royalties paid in-kind to governments during the year for the extraction of oil. The terms of the Royalties are described within our Production Sharing Contracts and can vary from project to project. Royalties have been calculated on the same barrels of oil equivalent basis as production entitlements.
Materiality threshold
Total payments below £86,000 made to a government are excluded from this report as permitted under the Regulations.
payments to governments – 2019
| Country/Licence | KRI Total (1) | Taq Taq (2) |
| Production entitlement (bbls) | 2,158,407.69 | 2,158,407.69 |
| Royalties in kind (bbls) | 435,881.47 | 435,881.47 |
| Total (bbls) | 2,594,289.16 | 2,594,289.16 |
| Value of production entitlements ($ million) | 128.43 | 128.43 |
| Value of royalties ($ million) | 25.80 | 25.80 |
| Capacity building payments ($ million) (3) | 4.63 | 4.63 |
| Total ($ million) | 158.86 | 158.86 |
(Source: Genel Energy)
By John Lee.
At least three rockets are reported to have hit near Halliburton‘s site in the Burjesia area of Basra early on Monday morning.
It is understood that the incident caused no casualties or damage.
It is the first attack to target US energy interests in Iraq in recent months.
(Sources: S&P Global Platts, AP, Sputnik)
By John Lee.
Iraq’s Ministry of Oil has announced preliminary oil exports for March of 105,102,927 barrels, giving an average for the month of 3.390 million barrels per day (bpd), essentially the same as the 3.391 million bpd exported in February.
These exports from the oilfields in central and southern Iraq amounted to 101,395,907 barrels, while exports from Kirkuk amounted to 3,287,439 barrels, and from Qayara 129,041 barrels. Exports to Jordan were 290,540 barrels.
Revenues for the month were $2.989 billion at an average price of $28.436 per barrel.
February export figures can be found here.
(Source: Ministry of Oil)