Kurdistan1 Feb 2014 11:30
Kurdistan Iraq Oil and Gas Jobs
An oil rich region once ruled by Hammurabi, the Romans, and the Ottoman Empire, Kurdistan is a geographical region that spreads throughout northern Iraq, northern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, where the Kurdish are the majority population. Iraqi Kurdistan is an ‘autonomous entity’ within the Republic of Iraq. A province in Iran that does not have the benefit of self rule is also named Kurdistan.
It is estimated that Iraqi Kurdistan has proven reserves estimated at 100-300 trillion cubic feet of gas and 45 billion barrels of oil. Further exploration has uncovered the possibility of another 25 billion potential barrels in unproven reserves. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) says operators are producing about 200,000 bpd (as of late 2012), with production of 1M bpd expected by 2015 and 2M bpd by 2019. The Tawke, Taq Taq, and Shaikan fields, the three largest proven reserves in Iraqi Kurdistan, have become well-known, even outside the worlds of oil and finance.
The shift to Iraqi Kurdistan by roughly 50 operators and vendors has spawned an oil and gas employment boom in the region; despite the strain this action is causing with the Iraqi Central Government.
Major operators have been pulling out of the much larger southern fields, controlled by the Central Government, in favor of the KRG’s willingness to make much more profitable deals in return for infrastructure investment. The majors claim bureaucratic inconsistencies, a crumbling infrastructure and scheduled blackouts, along with tough pricing contracts are largely to blame.
A problem for these operators is the fact that currently, most KRG oil has to run through Central Government controlled pipelines and the Government has claimed the new deals are illegal; holding back payments for oil already delivered. The only way around the issue is to ship oil via tanker trucks.
Nearby Turkey has been working with operators and the KRG to plan and implement pipelines to move Kurdish oil to Europe, collecting fees and hoping to quell some unrest within its own Kurdish population. The planned pipelines may be impacted by border disputes between the government and Kurdish movements in Turkey.
Despite the political climate, Iraqi Kurdistan is not only seeing investment in its oil fields; new airports, rail infrastructure, and other projects are being funded by stakeholders in the KRG’s reserves as well. Like many other areas in the region, Iraqi Kurdistan’s reserves are a means to modernization and growing a healthy employment market in several sectors and disciplines.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
