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Arabtec Expands Into Iraq With Baghdad Office

The Dubai firm has started looking for candidates for senior management posts including for the position of CEO. By Neil Churchill 1 hour ago Arabtec has announced plans to open an office in Baghdad in an effort to capitalise on Iraq’s growing oil and gas infrastructure. The Dubai construction firm said it expects Iraq to become its most lucrative construction market and it is already in advanced talks with a number of clients for large-scale projects in the country. An Arabtec statement said a major reason for the new office is to pave the way for its recently formed JV with Samsung Engineering and the soon to be announced JV with GS Engineering and Construction. “We see great potential for Arabtec in Iraq. Our physical presence there will enable us to capitalize on the significant new business opportunities that are available particularly in oil and gas and infrastructure,” said […]

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Iraq locked into vicious cycle on investment, says OECD

Iraq will lose out on investment that could create jobs and spur economic growth unless it pulls itself out of a “vicious cycle”, says an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development official. The private sector regards Iraq as high risk, so it limits itself to projects with the potential of high returns. That means the manufacturing projects that can create jobs and sustainable economic growth are less likely to come to the country, said Anders Jönsson, a policy analyst at the OECD “There appears to be something of a vicious cycle in Iraq today,” Mr Jönsson said at the Iraq Finance forum in Dubai yesterday. “What Iraq needs to do is to lower this bar and to lower the risks so more projects get done.” The high bar today is stifling projects from public-private partnerships to even simple landfills, he said. Investors’ perceptions are grounded in regulatory, security and […]

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Iraq eyes return to Opec quota system

Excess gas is burned off near workers at the Rumala oil field a project with CNOOC Iraq has for the first time begun preparing for a return to the Opec production quota system , in a shift of policy that reduces the prospect of oversupply and lower prices in global oil markets. Iraq , whose oil industry has recovered rapidly since the US-led invasion a decade ago, is expected to be one of the largest sources of supply growth in the oil market over the next decade. With North American output also rising rapidly due to the shale revolution, some analysts have raised the prospect of a supply glut unless Opec , the cartel of oil exporters, can control production. Until now Iraq has insisted that other members of the producers’ group, which controls around a third of the world’s oil production, should accommodate its growth. But speaking to […]

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Iraq advances new unit, improvement plans at Basra refinery

Iraq is nearing the start-up of a gasoline-producing unit that will boost overall processing capacity to more than 210,000 b/d at state-owned South Refineries Co.’s 140,000-b/d refinery in Basra Province. The 70,000-b/d unit is designed to help the country’s manufacturing sector to meet rising local need for oil-derived products, Iraq’s Minister of Oil Abdul Karim Laibi said in a Jan. 28 release from the ministry. Commissioning of the unit comes as part of a series of projects being implemented by the oil ministry to increase processing capacity at the refinery ( OGJ Online, Dec. 20, 2011 ), which also will include improvements to existing isomerization and naphtha units at the plant, Laibi said. No specific timeframes were disclosed for either the unit’s start-up or future improvement projects at the refinery.

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Iraq and Iran plot oil revolution in challenge to Saudi Arabia

Iraq and Iran plot oil revolution in challenge to Saudi Arabia British oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell are also poised to benefit from Iraq’s ambitious production plans. Both companies are already managing two huge oil fields in southern Iraq which are vital if Baghdad is to achieve its goal. However, even if Iraq is able to achieve its target of boost production capacity it is unlikely to be able to put in place sufficient pipeline and port infrastructure to export the additional crude. Iraq’s main export terminal for loading oil tankers at Al Faw near Basra will require billions of pounds worth of improvements in addition to the refurbishment of its pipeline network. Iraq’s ambitious plan could see it clash increasingly with the regime in Saudi Arabia, which has used its influence in OPEC over the last decade to keep oil prices above $100 a barrel. Saudi […]

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Rebels in Syria Claim Control of Resources

Islamist rebels and extremist groups have seized control of most of Syria’s oil and gas resources, a rare generator of cash in the country’s war-battered economy, and are now using the proceeds to underwrite their fights against one another as well as President Bashar al-Assad, American officials say. While the oil and gas fields are in serious decline, control of them has bolstered the fortunes of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria , or ISIS, and the Nusra Front, both of which are offshoots of Al Qaeda. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is even selling fuel to the Assad government, lending weight to allegations by opposition leaders that it is secretly […]

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Argentina's Shale Industry Lures International Oil Companies

More The whole world knows that shale revolutionized the U.S. energy industry. Now oil and gas executives are salivating when they think of Argentina’s booming shale industry. Argentina ranks second in the world, behind China, in potentially recoverable shale-gas reserves, with 802 trillion cubic feet, according to a study last October by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Argentina also ranks fourth in shale oil with an estimated 27 billion barrels. In July, YPF and Chevron inked a deal to spend $1.2 billion to further develop shale oil and gas resources in the Vaca Muerta  formation. The deal calls for an initial phase in which 100 wells will be drilled in a 5,000-acre tract in the Loma La Lata Norte and Loma Campana areas. Chevron said the deal gives it the chance to grow production beyond its 2017 target of 3.3 million barrels per day. Chevron says shale will help […]

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Argentina’s Shale Industry Lures International Oil Companies

More The whole world knows that shale revolutionized the U.S. energy industry. Now oil and gas executives are salivating when they think of Argentina’s booming shale industry. Argentina ranks second in the world, behind China, in potentially recoverable shale-gas reserves, with 802 trillion cubic feet, according to a study last October by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Argentina also ranks fourth in shale oil with an estimated 27 billion barrels. In July, YPF and Chevron inked a deal to spend $1.2 billion to further develop shale oil and gas resources in the Vaca Muerta  formation. The deal calls for an initial phase in which 100 wells will be drilled in a 5,000-acre tract in the Loma La Lata Norte and Loma Campana areas. Chevron said the deal gives it the chance to grow production beyond its 2017 target of 3.3 million barrels per day. Chevron says shale will help […]

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Shell sells stake in Brazilian field for $1bn

Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell a stake in one of its Brazilian offshore assets to Qatar’s state-owned oil and gas company for $1bn. The disposal of a 23 per cent share in Parque das Conchas project, also dubbed BC-10, to Qatari Petroleum International comes with the Anglo-Dutch major expected to step up efforts to raise cash in 2014 and 2015. Shell, Europe’s largest oil company by market value, has been accused by investors of spending too much in recent years and Ben van Beurden, new chief executive, who took the reins at the start of this year, is under pressure to improve capital discipline. As part of that, Shell is expected to sell some $15bn worth of assets over the next two years in one of the largest disposal programmes in its history. Already this year it has announced the sale of a […]

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Shell Sells Stake in Offshore Brazil Oilfield for $1 Billion

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) sold part of its stake in an offshore Brazil oilfield as Europe’s largest oil company steps up disposals to offset capital spending. Shell agreed to sell a 23 percent stake in the Parque das Conchas field, or BC-10, to Qatar Petroleum International Ltd. for about $1 billion, it said in a statement today. The Hague-based company will retain a 50 percent stake and will continue to operate the field, it said. Shell is selling assets to bring down its net capital investment, or spending on projects adjusted for acquisitions and disposals, which climbed to a record $45 billion last year. Shell issued its first profit warning in a decade this month, saying fourth-quarter earnings will be about half those of a year earlier as the cost of projects rises. The BC-10 field is currently producing about 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. The […]

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