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Kurdish Forces Seize Control of Two Key Iraqi Oil Fields

Iraq’s Oil Ministry said Friday that Kurdish Peshmerga forces had seized control of production facilities at two key oil fields near the northern city of Kirkuk, in a move that could further worsen already frayed relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad. According to a statement published on the Iraqi oil ministry’s website, Kurdish Peshmerga forces accompanied by a number of civilians took control of the Kirkuk and Bai Hassan oil fields at dawn Friday, expelling employees of Iraq’s central-government controlled North Oil Company. "The ministry strongly warns the Kurdistan region about the seriousness of this irresponsible behavior," the statement said, adding that there could be "serious consequences" if the Kurdish forces didn’t withdraw from the oil fields. Kurdish forces have held control of the disputed and oil-rich town of Kirkuk since insurgents overran the nearby town of Mosul, though until now they have not […]

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Iraqi Kurdistan Oil Output Rose in June

The IEA says Iraqi Kurdistan is pumping around 120,000 barrels a day to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via a pipeline. Here, a worker performs checks at the Turkish oil port. Reuters Oil production from the Kurdistan region of Iraq increased by more than 50% last month, despite violence in the country’s north and as logistical problems at the port of Basra cut exports from the south. The shifting nature of Iraq’s oil sector reflects political developments in the country. In a bid to gain greater independence, the Kurdistan Regional Government has taken advantage of its relative stability to increase oil exports in the past two months, infuriating Baghdad which claims sovereignty over the country’s natural resources. Meanwhile, the federal government is struggling to contend with a Sunni extremist insurgency in the north and west, led by the group that calls itself Islamic State, that has shut the country’s […]

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Kurds take control of more oil

Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are called on to take on terrorist groups rather than seize control of oil operations, the Iraqi Oil Ministry said Friday. Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, took control over two key oil facilities in the north of Iraq. The seizure comes after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused Kurds of being on the wrong side of the fight against a growing Sunni insurgency. The Iraqi Oil Ministry said Friday the Kurdish force is called on to "support security forces in confronting terrorist groups rather than using the conditions to raid and occupy oil fields." Already fragile ties between the federal government in Baghdad and the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government have been strained further in the wake of the declaration by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria of a caliphate in parts of northwestern Iraq. ISIS militants declared they took over a refinery in […]

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Iraq Kurds Use Army to Boost Control of Kirkuk Oilfields

Iraq ’s semi-autonomous Kurds increased their control over oil resources in the north of the country after deploying armed forces to the Kirkuk and Bai Hassan oilfields. Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of the two sites at the country’s fourth-biggest oil field today and ordered workers from Iraq’s state-run North Oil Co. to leave, the Oil Ministry said in an e-mailed statement. The Kurdistan Regional Government said in response that it acted to prevent the central government damaging an oil export pipeline. The Oil Ministry in Baghdad denied the claim. “Given the political context, the Kurds are solidifying their control,” Richard Mallinson, an analyst at consultants Energy Aspects Ltd., said by e-mail from London . “The Kurds have signaled their intentions to start moving Kirkuk oil through their pipeline network,” and this is another step toward making their ambitions a reality, he said. Iraq’s minority Kurds, who historically have […]

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Kurds seize Iraq oilfields, ministers pull out of government

BAGHDAD/KIRKUK (Reuters) – Kurdish forces seized two oilfields in northern Iraq and took over operations from a state-run oil company on Friday, while Kurdish politicians formally suspended their participation in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government. The moves escalated a feud between the Shi’ite-led central government and the autonomous Kurdish region driven by a Sunni insurgency which threatens to fragment Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines three years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Kurdish forces took over production facilities at the Bai Hassan and Kirkuk oilfields near the city of Kirkuk, the oil ministry in Baghdad said. It called on the Kurds to withdraw immediately to avoid "dire consequences". Kurdish forces took control of nearby Kirkuk a month ago after Iraqi troops withdrew in the face of a lightning assault by Islamic State militants, who have seized large parts of northern and western Iraq. The two oilfields have […]

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Premier’s CEO Seeks to Top Oil Target, Get Falklands Partner

Premier Oil Plc (PMO) ’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Tony Durrant has three immediate priorities to consolidate a share-price gain of more than 20 percent since he took the job this year. He plans to bring onstream the $1.4 billion Solan field located west of Shetland before the end of the year, find a partner to share a $5 billion investment to develop the Sea Lion project off the Falklands, and exceed an oil-production target. Durrant, who was promoted to the top job at the London-based explorer on June 25 after being chief financial officer for about nine years, also aims to double cash flow within five years to about $2 billion a year. “We have to continue to tick the boxes on the things we’ve been doing, continue to restore credibility, keep the production up, beat the guidance,” the CEO said in his first interview since taking […]

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India says it needs more gas pipelines

India’s finance minister said the country needs to double its existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure to diversify the national energy sector. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government aims to add another 9,300 miles to the existing network of about 9,300 miles of pipeline crisscrossing the country. "This will help increase the usage of gas, domestic as well as imported, which in the long-term will be beneficial in reducing dependence on any one energy source," he said Thursday. The government in April said it expected natural gas demand to more than double by the beginning of the next decade. According to the terms of a five-year energy plan , the Indian government has said it wants to add at least one transnational pipeline to the midstream sector from either Iran, Oman or Central Asia. The minister said the pipeline expansions could come through a mix of public- and private-sector […]

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Ailing Shale Gas Returns Force a 'Drilling Treadmill'

After studying production data from 65,000 wells from 31 different unconventional shale rock formations in 2012, David Hughes predicted big trouble ahead for North America’s unconventional hydrocarbon revolution. The prominent geologist, who has studied Canada’s energy resources for four decades, warned that shale gas and tight oil operations shared four big challenges: escalating capital costs, uneven performance and a growing environmental footprint, all followed by rapid depletion. "Shale gas can continue to grow, but only at higher prices and that growth will require an ever escalating drilling treadmill with associated collateral financial and environmental costs — and its long term sustainability is highly questionable," predicted Hughes just two years ago. Recent economic data on the industry from Bloomberg, Energy Analyst and even the International Energy Agency shows that Hughes was bang on. The tough economic news on shale, a dense rock that lies two to three kilometres underground, comes […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ailing Shale Gas Returns Force a ‘Drilling Treadmill’

After studying production data from 65,000 wells from 31 different unconventional shale rock formations in 2012, David Hughes predicted big trouble ahead for North America’s unconventional hydrocarbon revolution. The prominent geologist, who has studied Canada’s energy resources for four decades, warned that shale gas and tight oil operations shared four big challenges: escalating capital costs, uneven performance and a growing environmental footprint, all followed by rapid depletion. "Shale gas can continue to grow, but only at higher prices and that growth will require an ever escalating drilling treadmill with associated collateral financial and environmental costs — and its long term sustainability is highly questionable," predicted Hughes just two years ago. Recent economic data on the industry from Bloomberg, Energy Analyst and even the International Energy Agency shows that Hughes was bang on. The tough economic news on shale, a dense rock that lies two to three kilometres underground, comes […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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RRC: Energy Companies Reducing Water Use, Leading Conservation Efforts

Amid continued drought-like conditions across much of Texas, the state’s oil and gas industry is turning out to be an unlikely leader in the area of water conservation, wrote Christi Craddick, a commissioner at the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), in a June 26 article. The praise comes just over a year after a study by California-based CERES indicating that nearly 47 percent of wells were in water basins that were under stress from droughts. The fact that the oil and gas industry is helping to solve the water crisis might at first seem counter-intuitive, given the industry’s reliance of water for hydraulic fracturing in shale formations in a number of states across the country. However, those within the industry realize there is much to be gained from using as little water as possible in fracking operations. The amount of water used in oil and gas and mining operations […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple