Russia Takes Control Of Iraq's Biggest Oil Discovery For 20 Years

Oil Price ^ | 11/29/2023 | Simon Watkins

[SeekAndFind]

Preliminary estimates suggested that Iraq’s Eridu oil field holds between 7-10 billion barrels of reserves.

Senior Russian oil industry sources spoken to exclusively by OilPrice.com last week said the true figure may well be 50 percent more than the higher figure of that band. In either event, the Eridu field - part of Iraq’s Block 10 exploration and development region – is the biggest oil find in Iraq in the last 20 years, and Russia wants to control all of it, alongside its chief geopolitical ally, China.

[SeekAndFind]

This is in line with Moscow and Beijing’s objective of keeping the West out of energy deals in Iraq to keep Baghdad closer to the new Iran-Saudi axis and to “end [the] Western hegemony in the Middle East [that] will become the decisive chapter in the West’s final demise,” as exclusively related to OilPrice.com. The approval last week by Iraq’s Oil Ministry for Inpex – the major oil company of key U.S. ally Japan – to sell its 40 percent stake in the Block 10 region that contains the huge Eridu discovery leaves the way clear for Lukoil to take total control of the entire oil-rich area.

Lukoil had held a 60 percent stake in the entirety of Block 10, with the remainder held by the Japanese firm. However, from March it has been looking for ways to push Inpex out of the Block, and with it the last remnants of Western influence in the area. March saw Iraq’s state-owned Dhi Qar Oil Company (DQOC) formally approve the development of Block 10’s reserves, including for the whole Eridu field. Block 10 lies in the southeast of Iraq, approximately 120 km west of the key oil export route from Basra, and just south of the huge oil fields in and around Nassirya.

The contract for Block 10 awarded to Lukoil and Inpex back in 2012 in Iraq’s fourth licensing round gives a relatively high remuneration per barrel rate of US$5.99, although at that point the vast Eridu field had not been discovered. In 2021, after some preliminary testing, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said it expected peak production of at minimum 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Eridu by, at that point, 2027. The senior Russian oil industry sources exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week, believe peak production could run at least 100,000 bpd higher than the previous figure, contingent on whether the new reserves estimates are correct, although given delays in development since 2021, the date at which that will be achieved is now toward the end of 2029.

Back in 2021 – at least before the U.S. formally withdrew from Iraq by ending its ‘combat mission’ there at the end of December – it was clear that Washington knew what Russia and China were up to long term in the country, and how the U.S. was being manipulated by Iraq.

[crusty old prospector]

7-10 billion barrels. Not bad.

[Nextrush]

Well those US troops in Syria guard the oil and natural gas fields there so I guess there’s competition in the country next door.

We’re all Capitalists aren’t we.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Another Biden retreat and sell out to the communists. Need I say more?

[Safrguns]

It just crossed my mind about Ezekiel 38 and how God uses a “hook in the jaw” to pull Gog of Magog into an invasion attempt into Israel.

It also seems I’ve heard related prophecies suggesting an earthquake somehow upsets the balance of natural resources in Israel’s favor.

I wonder if this is connected, and if we are seeing a prelude to that prophecy.

[Sequoyah101]

Hardly seems like the area is very picked over to miss one that size.

We came up with a statistical drilling program for a large lease area. We knew the size of the prospect we wanted to find that would be "material" and the depth of the VR window and therefore the depth of the oil window and so we drilled a grid of the right size. There was very little in the way of exploration geology, sorry. We used a light weight drilling rig similar to the Longyear units for continuous coring but custom built for our depth window. Quite an operation. We mounted it like war campaign with training, test wells, test movements of material, warehouse for supplies and practice wells then a shut-down for after action reviews and tuning. When we got started we just got better and better and faster and faster and cheaper all the time.

I was only able to do two drilling campaigns like that and both worked out very well.

[Reverend Wright]

I was told by some oil industry geologists that a huge number of exploration core samples were destroyed in the looting that followed the US invasion, so much of the previous geological database was lost then.

[kiryandil]

We don't need any steenking oil.

We got wind and solar power.

The wind from The Tater's posterior, and the sunny dispositions of Pelosi and Newsom.

[Norski]

Check with Dutchsinse, Earthquake Predictor Extraordinaire

11/29/2023 — Earthquake activity update — Unrest spreading , where to watch next

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-AIIIDE7h8

[crusty old prospector]

Yeah, I remember some young whippersnapper published a paper saying that random drilling at one well per township would have done just as well as using geology and geophysics. That is easy to say when you look at a map after everything has been discovered. Imagine waltzing across Iowa. Dry hole, dry hole, dry hole. Even in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, most of the state is non-productive. We took offense. Try that strategy in the Gulf of Mexico.

[Safrguns]

>>> Check with Dutchsinse,

yeah... I’ve followed him for quite some time now.

Anyway, I clicked on your link, and SURE ENOUGH!... he’s issued a 7 day warning for Iraq... up to 6.5 i think.

[Sequoyah101]

Got to at least be in the right zip code.