What does TotalEnergies see in Iraq?

The major has bucked the trend of Iraqi exits and reorganisations. Why is it going where others fear to tread?

September’s announcement of a new $27bn, 25-year investment contract between TotalEnergies and Iraq’s Oil and Electricity Ministry looks very much an outlier after months of IOC partner dissatisfaction. The French major has not, though, made such a big bet on upstream oil production, infrastructure and solar generation on a whim. It is therefore important to understand how the commitment fits with the firm’s overall strategy. But what are also telling are the subtle differences between what TotalEnergies has agreed and the broadly similar, but much larger, $53bn Southern Iraq Integrated Project (SIIP)—the development originally spearheaded by ExxonMobil to develop a seawater injection facili