Iraq Oil Fields Operating Normally But U.S. Exxon Workers to Leave
Iraq Oil Fields Operating Normally But U.S. Exxon Workers to Leave
(Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s oil fields are working normally even as four U.S. citizens working at an Exxon Mobil Corp.-operated project have been asked to leave, the country’s oil minister said.
The OPEC country’s production and exports are normal and “there is no withdrawal from any company” from the nation’s fields, Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban told Bloomberg by phone. While there are four American citizens at the West Qurna-1 project, the field depends on Iraqis for operations, he said.
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad urged its citizens to leave the country after U.S. airstrikes in Iraq ordered by President Donald Trump killed one of Iran’s most powerful generals. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened “severe retaliation,” ratcheting up fears of an armed confrontation that could pull in other countries. Oil prices rose more than 4%.
“This is a seismic event in the region,” said Jason Bordoff, a former Barack Obama administration official who now works for Columbia University.
Some of the world’s biggest oil companies operate in Iraq, which is the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. BP Plc, which works on projects including the Rumaila oil field, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which has stakes in the Basra Gas Co., declined to comment.
Eni SpA’s Zubair field is “proceeding regularly at the moment. However, we are keeping on monitoring the development of the situation in the country,” the Italian company said. Lukoil PJSC, which is in the West Qurna-2 project, couldn’t be reached for comment on a public holiday in Russia.
The airstrike could escalate an already tense three-way situation between the U.S. and Iraq and Iran. The two Middle Eastern countries together pumped more than 6.7 million barrels a day of oil last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, more than one-fifth of OPEC output.
Oil exports from Iran and Iraq also rely on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow and crucial oil and natural gas shipping choke-point that’s always in focus when Middle East tensions flair, particularly with Iran.
--With assistance from Alberto Brambilla and Vladimir Kuznetsov.
To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Rakteem Katakey
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.