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bp is now back to its decades-long History in Iraq

bp has received the final government ratification for its contract concerning the oil field investments in Iraq. It was signed by bp Chief Executive Officer Murray  Auchincloss (left) in a meeting in Baghdad with Iraq Prime Minister H.E. Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, H.E. Hayan Abdul Ghani, Deputy PM for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, together with Nader Zaki, bp regional president for Middle East and North Africa, and Zaid Elyaseri, bp President Iraq. © bp
bp has received the final government ratification for its contract concerning the oil field investments in Iraq. It was signed by bp Chief Executive Officer Murray  Auchincloss (left) in a meeting in Baghdad with Iraq Prime Minister H.E. Mohammed Shia‘ Al Sudani, H.E. Hayan Abdul Ghani, Deputy PM for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, together with Nader Zaki, bp regional president for Middle East and North Africa, and Zaid Elyaseri, bp President Iraq.
© bp
Oil gushing from well head at Baba Gurgur in Kirkuk 1920.
Oil gushing from well head at Baba Gurgur in Kirkuk 1920.

bp has a long history of oil exploration and production in Iraq. This history stretches back ‎to the 1920s when the company that would eventually come to be known as bp helped ‎Iraq locate, produce and export oil from Baba Gurgur, Kirkuk. This was the largest oilfield ‎in the world at that time. The collaboration in Iraq continued up to the early 1970s, with ‎the Zubair field discovered in 1948 and the super-giant oilfield, Rumaila, in 1953.‎
 
In 2009, bp became the first international oil company to return to Iraq after a period of 35 ‎years. Between 2003 and 2006, bp conducted a technical evaluation of the Rumaila field ‎with the Ministry of Oil and in 2009, bp and PetroChina were awarded a technical service ‎contract (TSC) to increase production at Rumaila, in partnership with the state-owned ‎South Oil Company, recently renamed Basra Oil Company (BOC).‎

After signing a memorandum of understanding last year, bp has received now final government ratification for its contract to invest in the redevelopment of several giant oil field in Kirkuk, in the north of Iraq. The Investment in the project has the potential to bring opportunity and economic growth into the Kirkuk region – creating tangible benefits for the local population, improving supply chain capability alongside job creation.

The contract between North Oil Company (NOC), North Gas Company (NOC) and bp includes in the initial phase oil and gas production of more than 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the Baba and Avanah domes of the Kirkuk oil field and three adjacent fields in Federal Iraq, all of which are currently operated by the NOC. The wider resource opportunity across the central and surrounding area is believed to include up to 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent.