Oil production grows as Kurds hit the on-switch
With Kurdistan pumping 250,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil and exporting three-quarters of that volume, Iraq’s north is emerging as the Middle East’s fastest-growing hydrocarbons player
Despite continuing arguments between the Kurdish leadership in Erbil and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad, oil and gas assets in the three Kurdish provinces are attracting serious blue-chip attention. Vallares, the oil and gas acquisition vehicle established by former BP chief Tony Hayward, is said to be considering investing in Turkey’s Genel Enerji, which holds licence interests in the Kurdistan’s Taq Taq and Tawke oilfields – producing a combined 140,000 b/d. Meanwhile, the UAE’s Rak Petroleum, which holds a 30% stake in Norway’s DNO International, operator of the 70,000 b/d Tawke field, is said to be gearing up for a take-over of DNO. Rak chief executive (CEO) Bijan Mossavar-Rahma
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6 March 2026
The March 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
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After Europe’s rapid buildout of floating LNG import capacity, Exmar CEO Carl-Antoine Saverys says future growth in floating gas infrastructure will increasingly be driven by developing markets as lower prices, rising energy demand and the need to replace coal unlock new opportunities for unconventional and tailor-made solutions
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