Oil & Gas

Despite Baghdad’s push to drum up oil sector investment, foreign majors continue to balk at the opportunities on offer. Exxon’s decision to walk away from a major project has profound implications for Iraq’s ambitious upstream expansion plans.

Total is keen for a stake in the expansion of Qatar’s world-leading LNG facilities. With existing connections to Doha, and LNG expertize, it looks well placed to succeed. It’s also looking to bid in Abu Dhabi’s debut licencing round – if the geology is right.

A mammoth week of negotiations culminated in Opec’s sparring members effectively agreeing to release an extra 500,000 b/d onto global markets on 22 June. Individual country allocations have been replaced by a group-wide ceiling that will permit the stronger members to capitalize on falling output from the weaker countries.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil sector received further positive news this week with a breakthrough on a long-stalled deal to increase near-term...

Austrian firm OMV is currently testing wellheads at its Block S2 in Yemen’s central Shabwa basin, CEO Rainer Seele tells...

Iraq has restored an important domestic pipeline link between its northern fields and Baghdad. The 40,000 b/d pipeline will carry...

The Kurdish oil sector is seeing positive momentum. But modest 36,000 b/d gains at Atrush and Sarqala pales beside the 280,000 b/d lost at Kirkuk last October.

Algeria needs more IOC capex. Will a new oil law, promised for 2019, do the trick?

Iran has received a geopolitical boost from two summits in two continents. At the G7 in Montreal, US efforts to secure the buy-in of key allies on Iran sanctions took a hit, whilst in China, Iran held crucial talks with Russia and major Asian economies.

Iran sought to paint an exaggeratedly positive picture of its long-delayed crude swap deal with Iraq this week. On 3...

One year on, Qatar has made no meaningful concessions to Saudi Arabia and its allies. Unimpeded oil and gas exports have enabled it to largely offset the disruption.

Doha has marked the 1st anniversary of the Saudi-led embargo with a high-profile Exxon hook-up. The move highlights the futility of efforts to isolate Qatar.