ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq has signed a contract with Texas-based HKN Energy to develop an oil field in the central Salahaddin province, the country’s oil ministry reported Thursday, days after Baghdad struck another agreement with American oil giant Halliburton for the development of two oilfields in southern Iraq.
The state-run North Oil Company and HKN Energy inked the deal to develop production at the Hamrin field northeast of Salahaddin, aiming to reach output of 140,000 barrels per day (bdp) of oil and 40 million cubic feet of natural gas per day as well.
Newly appointed Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair, who was present at the signing, said the agreement aligns with the incumbent government's "vision and strategy for the optimal investment of oil and gas resources, in what would secure the required need for domestic uses and increases export rates."
The Hamrin oil field was the subject of a preliminary agreement between Iraq's oil ministry and HKN Energy in mid-June last year, before the two sides reached a final contract draft in November.
The agreement on Thursday comes days after Baghdad on Sunday signed another agreement with US oil services giant Halliburton to expand production at the Bin Umar and Sindbad oil fields in the southernmost Basra province.
Khudair framed the agreements within Iraq's wider push to attract international investors, "especially American and European ones, in order to invest in oil and gas according to the best international criteria and standards." The projects will also "secure employment for the local workforce and local companies," the oil minister said.
They also come at a time when Iraq has for months been moving to boost oil exports, disrupted recently by regional escalation and disruptions to shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where much of the country's exported oil transits.
As of the latest data, Iraq's national marketer, the State Organization for Marketing Oil (SOMO), reported that around 24.5 million barrels of oil were exported in June, marking a notable recovery even though shipping through Hormuz has yet to normalize.
Additionally, OPEC+ - the alliance of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC allies including Russia, which coordinates oil production levels among its members to influence global supply and prices - on Sunday approved an increase in Iraq's production quota.
The move is part of the bloc's gradual restoration of previously curtailed output, allowing regional producers to gradually restart massive amounts of production shut in during the regional conflict.
