EXXONMOBIL has lit a fuse in Kurdistan that will blow up Iraqi oil politics and may transform the outlook for a country riven with factionalism eight years after the US invaded.
The US supermajor has agreed an upstream deal for six oil and gas blocks in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The KRG, which agreed the contract in mid-October, but announced it on 10 November, said it followed "months" of negotiations with "a number of major" oil companies. A source told Petroleum Economist that Shell was offered three of the blocks eventually secured by ExxonMobil, but pulled out on 17 October, a day before the KRG signed with the US company.
Other international oil companies (IOCs) have also been sniffing around. One rumour suggests Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a London Aim-listed company, which previously made a large discovery in Kurdistan, could be the subject of a take-over bid, possibly from Chevron,...