Meed | No place like Iraq for international oil firms

No place like Iraq for international oil firms

28 April 2023

This analysis is part two of MEED's latest industry report on oil developers

For part one, please click: Capacity building spurs upstream spending

The most active international oil company (IOC) in the Middle East and North Africa region is PetroChina, which is in consortiums that have projects valued at $4.2bn under execution.

This is led by $3.3bn of work under way on Iraq's Halfaya oil field, for which PetroChina is the consortium lead, alongside France’s TotalEnergies, Malaysia’s Petronas and Iraq’s state-owned Basra Oil Company (BOC). The IOC also has work under way with BP at Iraq’s Rumaila field.

Petronas is separately also a consortium lead in Iraq, working with Japan Petroleum Exploration and Iraq’s North Oil Company on the development of the Garraf field.

The next most active IOC at present is the US’ ExxonMobil. The firm is consortium lead for $1.5bn-worth of projects under execution at Iraq’s West Qurna 1 field.

Elsewhere in Iraq, Italy’s Eni is leading the consortium overseeing more than $800m of work at the Zubair field in partnership with Korea Gas Corporation, BOC and Iraq’s Missan Oil Company.

Russia’s Lukoil is working with Iraq’s North Oil Company on the West Qurna 2 field, where projects worth $640m are under execution. China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Turkish Petroleum are also in consortium with Iraq Drilling Company, overseeing work under execution worth $760m at the Maysan field. United Energy Group Oil is developing block 9 in Iraq with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Dragon Oil, a subsidiary of Dubai’s Emirates National Oil Company.

The focus on Iraq is readily explained, with the country’s precarious security situation forcing its energy ministry to extend generous concession terms to IOCs as an incentive to invest in the country.

Outside of Iraq, the regional opportunities for IOCs to operate with the same latitude are much reduced. BP and Energean both have some independent activity in Egypt, while Shell holds the block 10 concession in Oman. Beyond this, the regional activity in terms of IOC-led projects under execution drops off sharply.

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John Bambridge