Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr withdrew his MPs from parliament in mid-June
Paper progress only in Iraq
Oil Ministry claims around key IOC investments ignore its lame duck status
All looks rosy in the Iraqi oil garden. The first major contract off the back of TotalEnergies’ planned $27bn investment in the country’s energy sector was signed in mid-July. Ever-bullish oil minister Ihsan Ismail declared in June that necessary approvals had been received for a state firm to buy ExxonMobil out from a key oilfield, potentially enabling some of Baghdad’s record crude export revenues to be ploughed into its slow-moving expansion. But flat production and sales—combined with, and in no small part caused by, prolonged political paralysis—paint a far bleaker picture. After a Paris meeting with the major’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, Ismail announced that a design contract had been ink
Also in this section
22 November 2024
The Energy Transition Advancement Index highlights how the Kingdom can ease its oil dependency and catch up with peers Norway and UAE
21 November 2024
E&P company is charting its own course through the transition, with a highly focused natural gas portfolio, early action on its own emissions and the development of a major carbon storage project
21 November 2024
Maintaining a competitive edge means the transformation must maximise oil resources as well as make strategic moves with critical minerals
20 November 2024
The oil behemoth recognises the need to broaden its energy mix to reduce both environmental and economic risks
