Chevron incoming1 Aug 2025 09:52
Chevron, SLB Deals Signal U.S. Return to Iraqi Oilfields
By Simon Watkins - Jul 31, 2025, 5:00 PM CDT
The U.S. and allies are ramping up energy and infrastructure deals to bolster ties with Iraq and its semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
U.S. firms like Chevron, SLB, and Baker Hughes have signed new agreements or are in talks with Baghdad to develop oil and gas fields.
Iraq’s vast oil reserves (estimated up to 215 billion barrels), critical trade routes, and its role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative make it a high-value prize.
Kurdistan oil
Western Firms Eye Multiple Deals In Major Offensive To Take The Iraq Initiative Back From China And Russia
There are two distinct superpower strategies at play to capture the very heartland of the Middle East – Iraq. On the one hand, China and Russia want to end the semi-independent status of Kurdistan in the north, have it rolled into the rest of Iraq as a regular province, and then expel all Western firms from the then-unified country. The objective for Beijing and Moscow in so doing was delineated by a very senior member of the Russian administration to a senior source who works closely with Iran’s Petroleum Ministry, and then exclusively relayed to OilPrice.com: “By keeping the West out of energy deals in Iraq, the end of Western hegemony in the Middle East will become the decisive chapter in the West’s final demise.” On the other hand, the U.S. and its allies want to bolster the independence of the Kurdistan region to act as leverage to extend their influence in the rest of Iraq to the south. Their objective is to have the Kurdistan region expel all Chinese, Russian and Iranian companies from the region, and then to gradually push for the same to happen in the rest of Iraq. Last week saw further evidence of this renewed impetus by the West to do just this.
Perhaps the most pertinent example of these zero-sum game strategies at play involved U.S. energy firm HKN. On the very same day that its Sarsang block in Kurdistan was hit by drone strikes from ‘unknown assailants’ (Kurdistan has posited that it was Iran-backed Iraq paramilitaries, while the Iraq government has said it was not) HKN also signed an agreement with the Iraq government-owned North Oil Company to develop the Hamrin field in Salah ad Din province in the country’s north. Moreover, just prior to the signing of the Hamrin deal, the same firm was threatened with legal action by the Iraq government for signing another deal with Kurdistan to develop its Miran gas field in Sulaymaniyah without the approval of the federal government in Baghdad. On this occasion, then, it could be said the Baghdad, Beijing, and Moscow won that round. Indeed, every production shutdown in Kurdistan that resulted from the recent drone attacks can be regarded by the Iraq government and its twin sponsors of China and Russia as a very useful reminder to Western firms that doing business with the federal government is a lot less troublesom
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