Petroleum industry in Iraq

The Iraqi prime minister has said Baghdad would increase oil export from fields in the northern province of Kirkuk to a Turkey's southern port.

Iraq’s foreign minister on Feb. 28 called on Turkish businesspeople and investors to participate actively in the reconstruction of the country’s economy, which is recovering from a nearly nine-year U.S.-led invasion that ended in 2011.

Iraq has approved the sale by Royal Dutch Shell of the company’s 20 percent stake in Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield to Japan’s Itochu Corp, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Jan. 10.

Iraq has agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from the northern Iraqi Kirkuk oilfield for Iranian oil, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi has said.

A Turkish energy delegation has met with Iraqi top oil officials in Baghdad to discuss issues including the resumption of Kirkuk oil exports via the Turkish port of Ceyhan, Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Nov. 16.

Turkey is well placed and an increasingly significant hub for oil and natural gas transit from the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia to Europe and the Atlantic, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has said. 

BP has cut its development budget for Iraq?s giant Rumaila oilfield by $1 billion this year after the government warned a slump in crude prices and its battle against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was making it difficult to pay oil companies.

Shell Upstream Turkey and Turkish Petroleum will conduct oil-and-gas explorations in the western Black Sea in 2015, a research report has revealed.

The Kurdish Regional Government, or KRG, increased its exports to world markets through Turkey to 300,000 barrels per day, according to Kurdish official sources.

Iraqi Kurdistan plans to increase the capacity of its oil pipeline via Turkey to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) following upgrade work, industry sources and officials said on Oct. 27.

It will raise the flow to 400,000 bpd by year-end, from a current 280,000 bpd, adding further pressure to falling world oil prices already hit by rising supply.