A Barrel Full

Whilst much of the refining world struggles with the consequences of refining sector over capacity, countries that should lack the funds are determined to add to the surplus.
First Nigeria
KBR announced today that it has been awarded a contract by Houston-based FPR Inc. to provide Design and Early Engineering Services for the development of the Araromi […]

I don’t know if there was really any doubt, but nonetheless it is important news.
After being forced to wait a number of days, Baghdad has finally approved all pending deals with foreign oil companies, updating their contracts to develop several major fields in Iraq. All the oil firms involved have agreed to technical and legal […]

This time they managed to get the oil companies to bite.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry awarded seven service contracts to international oil companies to develop some of its biggest oilfields in the second bidding round.
First Up West Qurna 2 field in the southern part of Iraq.
A total of four bids were delivered for the West Qurna 2 […]

Italian oil giant ENI has signed a new deal to increase its activities in Kazakstan.
Under the agreement, Eni and KazMunayGas will jointly study the Isatay and Shagala exploration areas located in the Caspian Sea. 
Other reports are talking of $50 billion investments. Whether or not that happens, there is no doubt it is a big deal for […]

The ability to act quickly can be the core competency of many small companies in a world of slow moving giants. DNO is a small Norwegian upstream company that was investing in Northern Iraq whilst the big companies procrastinated. It has done well for itself in the process, but such a strategy is not without […]

In an update on yesterday’s Nabucco story, the project has found some gas.
The offer from Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, to supply 15bn cubic metres of gas a year by 2015 helps address the greatest obstacle to the 3,300km pipeline from eastern Turkey to Austria: the prospect of there not being enough gas to fill […]

The biggest opportunity to get your hands on prime crude assets since the 1970s nationalisations. Nobody could afford not to take part. The Iraqi government couldn’t lose. Well perhaps not.
Iraq’s effort to woo foreign energy companies to help resurrect its ailing oil fields fell flat Tuesday, as most companies balked at the financial terms offered […]

Its worth reading this post on oil production potential in Northern Iraq.
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Oil companies have been excited about the potential of Iraq for the past few years. This story illustrates why.
Heritage Oil has uncovered an oilfield in Iraq’s Kurdistan region that it said could yield more than 4bn barrels of oil. The news sent its shares up 25 per cent. 
That’s a significant find for Heritage Oil a company that […]

The Russians are making headway in Iraq.
Russia and Iraq have agreed to intensify efforts in order to increase Russian companies’ involvement in major projects in the Middle Eastern country’s oil and gas sector, during the visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Moscow at the end of last week.  
Russian companies Lukoil, Rosneft and […]