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Kurdistan Says Nearing Economic Self-Sufficiency On Oil Boom

URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136419/Kurdistan_Says_Nearing_Economic_SelfSufficiency_On_Oil_Boom Kurdistan will see a steady rise in oil exports in the coming months, moving it closer to economic self-sufficiency. LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan will see a steady rise in oil exports in the coming months, moving it closer to economic self-sufficiency, while it is still hoping to clinch a final deal with Baghdad on oil exports and revenue sharing. Kurdistan this month reached a limited agreement with Baghdad on oil exports after months of wrangling. The federal government had cut off Kurdistan’s budget allocation in response to the autonomous region’s decision to export oil unilaterally. Kurdistan’s minister for natural resources Ashti Hawrami told a conference in London that despite a fresh deal, Arbil had yet to agree on other issues including the right to export oil independently and a revenue sharing mechanism. "The KRG will play its full role in helping […]

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Kurdish oil vital for Iraq, London says

Exports of oil from Kurdish north of Iraq could improve conditions for a united country, British minister tells investors. UPI/Ayad Rasheed Iraqi, Kurdish and other regional players gathered in London for an investment conference, two weeks after agreements in Iraq ended long-standing disputes over who has what level of control over the nation’s oil sector. British Energy Minister Matthew Hancock said investors need to stand by Iraq now that security and the political climate have improved. By 2040, he said, Iraqi crude oil production could triple to just over 8 million barrels per day. "Reserves in Kurdistan play a significant role in this increase," he said. "Development and export opportunities in the Kurdistan region will play a very important role in the future energy sector of a united Iraq." Gulf Keystone Petroleum, an energy company with headquarters in London, announced this week it linked oil wells in the Shaikan […]

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More Kurdish oil expected after field upgrades

Wells in the Kurdish north of Iraq tied to production facilities to boost production, oil companies say. Photo by Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock BUDAPEST, Hungary, Dec. 16 (UPI) — Oil companies working in the Kurdish north of Iraq said Tuesday they completed infrastructure that should increase total production by more than 60 percent. Hungarian energy company MOL and Gulf Keystone Petroleum, which has headquarters in London, said in coordinating statements three wells in the Shaikan oil play in the Kurdish north are now connected to existing production facilities. With the addition, the companies said total production should increase from a combined average of 24,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to 40,000 boepd. "We continue to focus our efforts to achieve volumetric increase in our assets in the Kurdistani Region of Iraq and also work together with the Ministry of Natural Resources in order to monetize production the most efficient way," […]

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ISIS’s Oil Revenue Is Falling, Administration Says

ByJay Solomon A Kurdish Peshmerga Nov. 8 during fighting against Islamic State in the Syrian besieged border town of Ain al-Arab. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The Obama administration believes it has sharply cut back the oil revenues that have made the Islamic State the best funded terrorist organization in history, according to senior U.S. officials. The U.S. has been combining military strikes that target energy infrastructure controlled by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria with heightened tracking of smuggling routes used to move oil through Turkey and Kurdistan, according to these officials. In October, the U.S. Treasury Department estimated that Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, was earning between $1 million and $2 million a day from oil sales. Administration officials, without citing specific figures, say they believe they have already scaled back this revenue stream sharply. “We know this has come down significantly,” said Amos Hochstein , the State […]

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Gulf Keystone on Track to Up Shaikan Daily Output in Kurdistan by More Than 60%

By Alex MacDonald LONDON–U.K.-listed oil firm Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (GFKSY) said Tuesday that it is on track to boost daily oil output from the Shaikan field in Kurdistan by more than 60% through three additional oil wells. The company has installed flowlines to connect three new wells–Shaikan 7, 8, and 10–to existing production facilities. It expects to start pumping oil through the flowlines this month, the company said. This will increase the field’s total output to a near-term target of 40,000 gross barrels of oil per day from 23,000 to 25,000 barrels a day currently, it added. "Despite numerous challenges earlier this year, Gulf Keystone has completed the work on the three additional producers on time," said John Gerstenlauer, Gulf Keystone’s chief executive officer. "We are now testing the flowline connections, including an 11 km link between Shaikan-10 and PF-2, and look forward to boosting Shaikan production to […]

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China offers to help Iraq defeat Sunni extremists

Ibrahim Jafari China has offered to help Iraq defeat Sunni extremists with support for air strikes, according to Ibrahim Jafari, Iraq’s foreign minister. Wang Yi, Mr Jafari’s Chinese counterpart, made the offer to help defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as Isis , when the two men met in New York at September’s UN antiterrorism meeting, Mr Jafari said. More On this topic IN Iraq Any Chinese assistance would be outside the US-led coalition. “[Mr Wang] said, our policy does not allow us to get involved in the international coalition,” Mr Jafari told the Financial Times in Tehran, where he was attending an anti-extremism conference earlier this week. “I welcomed this initiative. I told him . . . we are ready to deal with the coalition and also co-operate with countries outside this coalition.” Isis has taken swaths of Iraqi territory since June. The US has led the air […]

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Analysis: Iraq’s oil disputes remain unresolved

Iraqi Oil Minister Adil Abdulmahdi (left), KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani (center), and KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani (right), in Erbil on Nov. 13, reach a deal on restarting revenue sharing payments and exports. (Source: Kurdistan Regional Government) Recommend 330 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Leaders in Baghdad and Erbil are still far away from achieving a long-lasting resolution to Iraq’s oil policy disputes, even though the tides of optimism have swelled in the past few weeks.There is reason to be hopeful. In November, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) began participating in federal Iraqi oil exports for the first time since 2013, and began receiving federal budget payments. On Dec. 2, the Iraqi Cabinet ratified a political agreement that could help move that …

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Iraqi Officials Push to Take Fight to ISIS in Mosul as U.S. Urges Restraint

MANAMA, Bahrain — Allied warplanes and Iraqi ground troops are increasingly isolating Islamic State militants in the captured city of Mosul, prompting Iraqi officials to push for a winter offensive to wrest control of the area months ahead of the previous schedule — and over American warnings. The ground campaign to retake Iraq’s second-largest city from the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS , is still likely many weeks away, American officials said. Its timing will depend on the pace of training for additional Iraqi ground troops to retake the city and for a holding force afterward, as well as sorting out a brewing dispute between Baghdad and Washington over whether Iraq is ready to carry out such a complex urban battle. The United States and its coalition partners have carried more than 660 airstrikes in Iraq, making it more difficult for the Islamic State to mass […]

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Shia militias spark furor in disputed territories

Iraqi federal troops and members of their Kurdish and Shiite militia allies climb up Adhaim dam after recapturing it from Islamic State (IS) group militants in the ethnically mixed Diyala province, on Nov. 14, 2014. (YOUNIS AL-BAYATI/AFP/Getty Images) By Recommend 697 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Firing rifles into the air from more than 50 Humvees, a convoy of militiamen rolled through the main street of Kifri, 120 kilometers southeast of Kirkuk city, on Nov. 29 – arriving without warning in Kurdish-controlled Iraq.Two local Kurdish security officials and multiple eyewitnesses said that Kifri residents lined the highway, hurling abuse, rocks and water bottles at the Shia forces. Unverified videos posted to social media also captured the scene. Clashes between the local population…

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Iraq Follows Saudis Discounting Oil for Asia to 11-Year Low

Iraq will sell its Basrah Light crude next month to customers in Asia at the steepest discount in at least 11 years, following Saudi Arabia’s lead as Middle Eastern producers seek to defend market share. Basrah Light, a high-sulfur oil used by refiners including China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., was set at $4 a barrel below the average of Middle East benchmark Oman and Dubai grades, according to a statement from Iraq’s Oil Marketing Co. yesterday. That’s the lowest since at least August 2003, when Bloomberg started compiling the data. The official selling price to U.S. buyers was cut by 30 cents compared with December, while shipments to Europe were marked up by 10 cents. Iraq is reducing export prices to Asia after a similar move by Saudi Arabia last week. The two nations are the biggest producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which decided against cutting […]

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