Page 4 - MEOG Week 25

MEOG Commentary MEOG
Danger zone: Iraqi
border fields come
under spotlight
Further attacks close to proli c oil elds near Iraq’s border with Iran have given cause for output concerns, while diplomatic efforts by Kuwait may bear fruit.
Iraq/KuWaIt
What:
A rocket exploded near the Zubair oil eld in south-east Iraq, leading ExxonMobil to re- evacuate staff to Dubai.
Why:
Oil facilities in the area are on high alert with tensions heightened between Iran and the uS. The latest attack appears to have targeted uS involvement in the Iraqi upstream.
What next:
Kuwait and Iraq are seeking to ease tensions and are working towards the joint development of shared elds along their border.
ExxonMoBIl this week evacuated 21 of its workers to Dubai from a compound near Basra a er a rocket exploded nearby. numerous local sources have suggested that the attack came from Iran-backed groups in light of both the height- ened tensions between Washington and Tehran and of ExxonMobil sta returning a er the pre- vious evacuation.
Sources told Middle East Oil & Gas Moni- tor (MEOG) that security personnel had been warned of a potential attack to the US consulate in Basra, with Zubair town mayor quoted by press as saying that the perpetrators had sought to “send a message” to the US.
Meanwhile, during a visit to Baghdad Kuwaiti oil minister Khaled al-Fadhel told state-run Kuwaiti news Agency KUnA last week that plans were underway for a deal on production from elds shared with Iraq.
He told KUnA: “A joint agreement will be signed with the Iraqi party a er the Kuwait oil Co. (KoC) completes a study about the produc- tion of the shared oil elds in northern Kuwait.”
e comments came as Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah discussed regional
safety and bilateral relations with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Adbul Mahdi.
Basra bombers
ExxonMobil holds stake of 25% in West Qurna-1 and is partnered by Japan’s Itochu Corp. (20%, bought from Shell last year), PetroChina (25%), Pertamina (10%) and South oil Co. (SoC, 20%). e eld holds an estimated 9 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and the Moo has been push- ing for expansion, with the asset key to national production goals.
However, the latest attack came closer to Eni’s Zubair oil eld, at Burjesia, west of Basra and home to the Iraqi headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and Eni.
Media reports citing Iraqi o cials said that oil operations and exports were not a ected and that the other rms had no intention of evacu- ating sta .
Response to the rocket’s explosion has been varied, with local police saying that it occurred 100 metres from the ExxonMobil facility, Eni saying it had been ‘several kilometres’ from facil- ities and Shell noting that it had not been “subject
P4
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 25 25•June•2019