Despite a protest movement that has brought much of the Iraqi government to a standstill, the oil sector is continuing to operate at full capacity.
"This is a success story," said Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban. "This does not mean that we did not face difficult times — difficult days or difficult nights."
In an interview with Iraq Oil Report at his office in Baghdad, Ghadhban described the advance planning that has helped the ministry keep fuel flowing to domestic consumers, as well as the constant demands of crisis management that continue to arise as protesters block access roads to oil fields and ports.
"We have kept oil field production — oil, gas, gas processing, as well as exports — without any change at all," Ghadhban said.
Beyond avoiding catastrophic short-term disruptions, Ghadhban is also taking steps to advance several strategic projects.
Export capacity will rise by half a million barrels per day (bpd) when a new subsea pipeline is connected to the al-Basra Oil Terminal, which is still expected to be completed by the end of this year. When two more connections are completed, at the end of 2021, the pipeline's full 1 million bpd capacity will come online.
Other export projects are moving forward. The ministry has accepted bids for an export pipeline to Jordan — a project that will ultimately include a spur connecting Basra to Turkey. A key study on the Fao export depot is imminent. And plans to build an export island are moving forward.
Ghadhban also provided an update on the status of the contracts awarded but not signed from the 5th bidding round, the path to resuming development of the Mansuriya and Akkas gas fields, the status of negotiations with ExxonMobil and PetroChina over the Southern Iraq Integrated Project (SIIP), and the preparations being made to wean Iraq off of Iranian gas and power supplies.
On the political front, he said revised legislation to restart the national oil company is being presented to Cabinet committees. And, he discussed the contours of negotiations between Baghdad and Ankara, as Turkey presses Iraq to drop a multi-billion-dollar arbitration case over the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline.
If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial.
All sources quoted or referenced spoke to Iraq Oil Report directly and exclusively, unless stated otherwise. Iraq Oil Report typically grants anonymity to sources that can't speak without risking their personal safety or job security. We only publish information from anonymous sources that we independently corroborate and are important to core elements of the story. We do not provide anonymity to sources whose purpose is to further personal or political agendas.
Iraq Oil Report Commitment to IndependenceIraq Oil Report strives to provide thoroughly vetted reporting and fair-minded analysis that enables readers to understand the dynamic events of Iraq. To meet this goal, we always seek to gather first-hand information on the ground, verify facts from multiple angles, and solicit input from every stakeholder involved in a given story.
We view our independence as an integral piece of our competitive advantage. Whereas many media entities in Iraq are owned or heavily influenced by political parties, Iraq Oil Report is wholly owned by several of its employees. In a landscape that is often polarized and politicized, we are able to gather and corroborate information from an unusually wide array of sources because we can speak with all of them in good faith.
To fund this enterprise, Iraq Oil Report depends on revenue from both advertising and subscriptions. Some of our advertisers and subscribers ‐ including companies, governments, and NGOs ‐ are also subjects of our reporting. Consistent with journalistic best practices, Iraq Oil Report maintains a strict firewall that removes business considerations from editorial decision-making. When we are choosing which stories to report and how to write them, our readers always come first.