IRAQ: a petroleum exploration and production handbook

This book provides an authoritative evaluation of Iraq as an E and P petroleum investment opportunity. It describes for the International Oil Companies the attractiveness to inwards investment of Iraq in terms of its technical, legal/contractual, fiscal and geopolitical prospectivity.

A must-have for anyone serious-minded about doing future business in Iraq

This handbook is directed towards the International Oil Companies, IOCs, who are contemplating investment in a future Iraq, post-Saddam. The approach is to describe the investment opportunities likely to become available in the upstream in the quite near future as a renewed Iraq gets back on its feet. It will describe the downstream work which will be needed before the upstream sector will be able to take advantage of the available opportunities. This downstream work will include the rehabilitation needed on pipelines particularly but also on export terminals. Much engineering work will also be needed on tank farms, refineries etc. so that the Iraqi market can be supplied with much-needed petrol, diesel and paraffin for local domestic use. Oil well fires will need to be extinguished.

Despite the opportunities described here the oil companies should be aware that the primary task for the Iraqis will be to get their country working again after the present conflict. Their attent will be focussed on the relief of distress and the provision of food and water for their people. They will be less concerned initially with talking to foreign oil men who come seeking deals. Clumsy approaches to the wrong people will cause resentment for years to come. It will not be the swiftest who win the race but the most patient.


Make sure you get the best chance to do the right thing at the right time in the right way.

What direction, events will take?

What is to be the role of the Iraq National Oil Corporation?

What form of federalism, if any, might develop in the new Iraqi state?

What control might the various sub-federal institutions have on their own petroleum resources?

What of any future influence of the Islamic (Sharia) Law on petroleum policy and legislation?


All these matters are dealt with in this authoritative handbook.

The attractions of Iraq to the modern petroleum explorer are multi-fold provided that the sensitivities of the Iraq people can be accommodated. This will mean that any potential foreign investor in such a strategic industry as the upstream oil sector will have to tread carefully and be prepared to expend time on building personal relationships with Iraqis in the existing oil sector. Any attempts at heavy-handed domination by outsiders will jeopardise the elevated expectations of the International Oil Companies.

Be well-informed about the enormous opportunities arising in this country with its abundant resources but battered infrastructure.

Quick facts
The obvious advantages of Iraq to the IOCs are.....

- its favourable situation within the Arabian Mega-Basin, the world’s most prolific petroleum province

· its long history of successful exploration and production from the very earliest days of the international oil industry.

· its very great level of low cost reserves at the Proven and Probable level. Reserves at this level may be booked by the International Oil Companies, IOCs to the advantage of their share price provided that they can establish title to them

· its low cost of production, probably only a dollar or two per barrel

· the high flow rates of its wells, several thousand barrels per day, compare Kuwait

· a pipeline infrastructure particularly to the Mediterranean coast via Syria that may be available in the near future to a foreign upstream oil company

· the availability of much attractive acreage which has not since the nineteen seventies been subjected to modern exploration technology

There is also a well-trained resident work force of skilled petroleum professionals trained in European and North American universities. The State Oil Company, the Iraq National Oil Company is staffed by well-qualified and dedicated petroleum professionals.

Michael Bunter
This book has been written by an ex-oil company petroleum geologist with over thirty years oilfields experience. Michael Bunter has been involved in exploration and production in the Arabian Gulf and has written a book on petroleum licensing. He addresses the technical and commercial issues of the Iraq petroleum sector in language familiar to oil company management and to technical specialists.

Thomas W. Wälde
Professor & Jean-Monnet Chair CEPMLP/Dundee and Principal, Thomas Wälde & Associates

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