Author: PPD Team Date: 17/01/2025
UK oil and gas giant bp is set to sign an agreement with the Government of Iraq to redevelop four oil and gas fields in the Kirkuk region of northern Iraq. The deal could be signed by early February, as stated by Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani to Reuters.
The project aims to increase the production capacity of the fields from 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 500,000 bpd, supplying under-utilised northern refineries. According to AFP, the initiative will also focus on recovering flared gas to boost Iraq’s electricity production.
The preliminary agreement, reported by Iraq’s state news agency, focuses on evaluating redevelopment plans for the Kirkuk oil and gas field and nearby fields. The deal will offer bp more favourable profit-sharing terms compared to older contracts, which Reuters sources noted left foreign companies with minimal margins.
Iraq’s Oil Minister highlighted that the deal is expected to be larger than TotalEnergies’ $27 billion (€26.22 billion) agreement in Basra. This marks part of Iraq’s broader strategy to enhance gas capture and production while boosting oil output.
bp has deep historical ties to Kirkuk, where it was part of the consortium that discovered oil in the 1920s. It also holds a 50% stake in the joint venture operating the Rumaila oilfield in southern Iraq, a site with an estimated nine billion barrels of recoverable oil.