TotalEnergies SE and its partners have begun construction for the Ratawi field redevelopment project and a seawater supply project in Iraq, the final components of the country’s over $13 billion Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP).
Iraq’s state oil marketing firm is in discussions with Exxon for potential crude storage sites close to demand markets in Asia, the United States, and Europe, Bloomberg reports, citing a senior Iraqi executive.
The Common Seawater Supply Project (CSSP) is the key to unlock massive gains in oil output from Iraq. Consequently, control over the project is pivotal to gaining control over the country’s enormous oil and gas resources.
The Chinese companies are replacing Western oil and gas majors who left Iraq in search of greener pastures. CNPC took over the West Qurna 1 field last year and plans to boost its capacity to 1.2 million barrels daily by 2035. West Qurna 1 is one of the largest oil fields in the world, with reserves estimated at more than 20 billion barrels of recoverable hydrocarbons. Currently, it produces around 550,000 barrels daily.
The potential renegotiation is the latest step in the saga that started in March 2023, when Turkey closed the link after an arbitration court ordered the country to pay Iraq $1.5 billion over unauthorized exports. Numerous attempts to restart shipments have since failed – including due to disagreements between Iraq, its semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and companies operating in the area.
The original agreement, first inked in 1973, concerns the pipeline carrying oil from the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean. Flows along the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has a capacity for 1.6 million barrels daily, have now been suspended for two years amid a financial dispute between Ankara and Baghdad.
The Kurdistan Regional Government will supply Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO with 230,000 barrels a day as part of a deal for Baghdad to release funds for salaries in the northern region, people familiar with the matter said. The transfer of the crude is a crucial element for an agreement between the federal and semi-autonomous administrations to restart exports through a pipeline to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
OPEC’s second-largest producer, Iraq, was the single biggest supplier of crude from the cartel to the United States in May, per data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) cited by Iraqi media outlets Shafaq News and IraqiNews.
It has been over two years since the Baghdad-based Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) placed an embargo on independent oil exports from the Erbil-based Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The legal basis for the halting of these essential flows to the finances of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan was the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) order that they would not be resumed until Turkey paid the FGI the US$1.5 billion in damages for these allegedly unauthorised oil exports over many previous years.
Although the ‘No Iranian Energy Act’ was introduced to U.S. lawmakers on April Fools’ Day it is no joke as far as the Americans are concerned and the Iraqis will find little cause for merriment in its contents either. As highlighted by Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Congressman August Pfluger, this legislation is part of President Donald Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran’s leaders.