Iraq Oil Briefing

History of Oil Exploration in Iraq

The partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company were British Petroleum (23.75%), Shell (23.75%), Total (23.75%), Exxon (11.875%), Mobil (11.875%) and Partex (5%). Major discoveries were made at Kirkuk in Kurdistan in 1927 and at Zubair and Rumaila in southeast Iraq in 1949 and 1953, respectively. In 1961, Iraq revoked the exploration rights of IPC, leaving it with only the producing areas. In 1973, the interests of Exxon, Mobil, Shell and Partex were nationalized, leaving only BP and Total, which were nationalized in 1975 (Beydoun, 1988). Braspetro, the international arm of Brazil's national oil company, worked north of Basra on a service contract basis from 1976 to 1979. In 1977, they discovered the important Majnoon Field along the border with Iran.

Iraqi Kurdistan

The giant Kirkuk Field in Kurdistan has historically been the most important oil-producing area in Iraq. It is one of the largest fields in the Middle East and was discovered in 1927, before any other Mideast oil field of comparable size. According to the United States Energy Information, the Kirkuk Field had produced 9.1 billion barrels of oil by the end of 1980. More recent figures are not available. The Area 2 map shows the oil fields of Kurdistan and Iran.

Southeast Iraq

The other important producing region in Iraq is located in the Southeast, near the city of Basra. These structures contain producible oil in 14 or 15 different geologic zones. According to the USEIA, the Rumaila and Zubair Fields had produced 4.2 and 1.0 billion barrels of oil by the end of 1980. Recent (2005) reports of water incursion problems in southern Iraq suggest that these fields may be more mature than published reserve figures indicate. The Area 3 map shows the oil fields of southeast Iraq and neighboring areas.

Most Valuable Properties

The most valuable oil properties in Iraq are probably Rumaila, with original oil in place of 51.67 billion barrels, Kirkuk with original oil in place of 37.5 billion barrels, Majnoon with original oil in place of 15 billion barrels, and Zubair with original oil in place of 15 billion barrels. The above oil in place numbers are from Roadifer (1986). All four of these are considered supergiant fields, with more than five billion barrels of recoverable reserves each. Supergiant is the largest oil field size category by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists

References

Beydoun, Z. R., The Middle East: Regional Geology and Petroleum Resources, Scientific Press Ltd., 1988

Roadifer, R.E., How Heavy Oil Occurs Worldwide, Oil and Gas Journal, March 3, 1986