Russia’s Rosneft announced in its Q1 results this week that “experimental production started at the Bijeel field at Block 11.” This is one of the five blocks that the state-led firm signed up to in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2017 (MEES, 16 June 2017). Bijeel has production facilities with capacity of 10,000 b/d installed by former Hungarian operator Mol, which could also be linked to the nearby Jisik discovery (MEES, 31 August 2018). Mol had high hopes for Bijeel, targeting 50,000 b/d (MEES, 15 August 2014), but it exited in 2016 after downgrading reserves from 800mn barrels to just 4mn (MEES, 15 January 2016). Rosneft must be confident that Mol missed something when it walked away.