On Monday, a deputy oil minister revealed that ExxonMobil has legally left the West Qurna 1 oilfield in southern Iraq and turned over its operations to PetroChina as the principal contractor.
Top Iraqi oil officials met with ExxonMobil, PetroChina representatives, and Basra Oil Company in Basra to celebrate ExxonMobil’s handover of its operations to PetroChina.
A senior Iraqi oil official revealed in November that PetroChina took over as the primary contractor of an oilfield after ExxonMobil signed a settlement deal.
Last November, Hassan Mohammed, the Deputy Director of BOC, stated in an interview with Reuters that after evaluating the settlement deal, the Iraqi Oil Ministry and BOC have determined that PetroChina is the best candidate to be the primary contractor for the West Qurna 1 oilfield.
Once ExxonMobil exits the field, the largest share will be owned by PetroChina.
BOC has signed a deal with Iraq to acquire ExxonMobil’s stake in the West Qurna 1 oilfield, with the finances being handled by the former.
The agreement includes a commitment to negotiate the tax ExxonMobil must pay for selling its share in the oilfield.
The BOC Deputy Director explained that if the tax issue is not resolved, there are two options: a settlement or arbitration.
Pertamina, the Indonesian government-owned oil and gas company, acquired 10% of ExxonMobil’s shares last year, increasing its total ownership to 20%. Meanwhile, BOC bought 22.7% of the oilfield.
The West Qurna oil field has 43 billion recoverable barrels of oil, making it one of the largest in the world.
The Iraqi government approved the sale of ExExxonMobil’stake in the oilfield to BOC in 2022 for $350 million.
