The Halfaya oilfield in Amara, southeast of Baghdad
Letter from Iraq: Licences fail to lure IOCs
Oil majors play it safe amid unfavourable terms in latest oil and gas licensing bid rounds allowing Chinese low-ball moves
Iraq held its combined ‘fifth-plus’ and sixth licensing rounds in May. The offering had been since two years previously, when the Ministry of Oil announced the round with 30 blocks. The projects are distributed into 16 within the fifth-plus round, including eight exploratory oil blocks, and 14 blocks within the sixth round, including 11 blocks for non-associated gas exploration and three oil and gas blocks. The ministry was keen on the geographical distribution of these projects, and they included all the governorates of Iraq—from Nineveh and Anbar through to Salah al-Din, Najaf, Karbala, Babylon, Qadisiyah, Muthanna, Basra, Maysan, Wasit, Diyala and the capital, Baghdad—to contribute to ach
Also in this section
10 March 2026
Eni’s director for global gas and LNG portfolio, Cristian Signoretto, discusses how demand will respond to rising LNG supply, and how the company is expanding its own gas and LNG operations through disciplined, capital-efficient investments
9 March 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis sees increases in output from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan among others before region’s murky descent
9 March 2026
Energy sanctions are becoming an increasingly prominent tool of US foreign policy, with the country’s growth in oil and gas production allowing it to impose pressure on rivals without jeopardising its own energy security or that of its allies, argues Matthew McManus, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics
6 March 2026
The March 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
