Oil & Gas Industry - Oil drilling jobs in Iraq

• Instrument Technician, job location: in Iraq, offshore, 10 years of previous experience in the field on oil production platforms, may be citizen of Indonesia or India, require training/education level: Certificate or college/technical school diploma in electrical/mechanical technology. This is a totally male role, for female candidates there's hardly any sense to apply for this offshore oil job.
• Our client, a major oil drilling contractor in Iraq and the Middle-East, urgently requires candidates to fill crew vacancies to work on offshore and onshore oil drilling projects with the following salaries per month: -
  • Driller: $US 4,500 - 5,000
  • Assistant Rig Manager: $US 7,300 - 7,900
  • Assistant Crane Operator: $US 4,300 - 6,500
  • Chief Mechanic: $US 5,200 - 5,900
  • Assistant Driller: $US 3,000 - 4 000 Egypt
  • Toolpusher: $US 9,000 - $US 11,000 Iraq, Qatar
  • ROV Pilot/Technician, salary negotiable, offshore, Persian Gulf
  • Chief Electrician: $US 5,000 - $US 6,000 - Iraq, Oman
  • Roughneck $US 3,000 - 7,000 Iraq, UAE
  • Maintenance Roustabouts - $US 2,800- 4,000
  • Trainee/Assistant Mechanical Technician - salary to be negotiated, this is entry-level job
  • Motorman, salary $US 3100 - 4,200
  
  All selected candidates should be ready to get down to work as soon as possible after 10 day refresher course that would include their trade specific OPITO approved modules. Foreigners with criminal record do not apply, please.

Foreign companies on Iraq oil exploration/production market

Most of the foreign companies in Iraq that offer jobs in drilling for oil exploration and production are located in the southern part of Iraq, far away from the areas under the control of the Islamists. In 2014 the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced that oil exports from the southern oilfields reached 2.5 million barrels per day, a record breaking volume since 2003. If foreign oil & gas companies reduced their activities due to the escalation of the conflict, the Iraqi budget would lose 90% of the country's income.

Back in the year 2010 the American company ExxonMobil Iraq, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation, and the UK-Netherlands Royal Dutch Shell signed an agreement with Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company (SOC), headquartered in Basrah. The contract was to regulate the aspects of the development of the West Qurna oilfield-1 in Basra province in southern Iraq. The stocks of the West Qurna-1 oilfield were estimated at 8.7 billion barrels of oil, with ExxonMobil's share amounting 60%, the stake of the Iraqi side being 25%, and Royal Dutch Shell participation constituting 15%.

Assistant Drillers (onshore oil rigs) required, type of contract: temporary, contract duration: 6 months. Good candidates will have sufficient knowledge of the English language and prior experience on oil rigs in the same position. Similar vacancies are available on oil rigs in Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE (Abu-Dhabi), Kuwait.

June 18, 2014 ExxonMobil announced a large-scale evacuation of its employees and oil rig workers working in this field. Despite the fact that there is no military action in the region, the Royal Dutch Shell administration has designed plans for emergency evacuation of their oil rigs servicing personnel in the event the situation changes to deterioration.

In October 2011, ExxonMobil Iraq signed an agreement with the leadership of the Iraqi Kurdistan on getting the rights to develop oil fields in six sectors in its territory. The agreement is regarded as illegal by the federal government of Iraq. Therefore the US oil drilling contractor company was excluded from the list of bidders for gas exploration and production at 12 sites in southern Iraq.

Some of oil companies that might offer jobs in the Iraqi Kurdistan: Genel Energy, DNO, Total, OMV, HESS, HKN Energy, Dana Gas, Gazprom Neft, Talisman Energy, DNO, Repsol, AFREN, Oil Search (Iraq) Limited, Viking International, Chevron, Gulf Keystone Petroleum LTD., Oryx Petroleum, MOL Group, Exxon Mobil, Western Zagros, Hunt Oil Middle East Limited, Marathon Oil Corporation

Italian company ENI in a consortium with US Occidental Petroleum Corporation (also DBA Oxy) and South Korea's Kogas January 22, 2010 signed a contract to develop the field Zubair in southern Iraq. The reserves of oil of the oilfield are estimated at 4 billion barrels. ENI is the operator of the project. The contract is for 20 years, renewable for another five. By convention, the consortium will invest in the development of the deposits around $US 20 billion.

China National Petroleum and Gas Corp (CNPC, China National Petroleum Corporation) acquired the right to develop oilfield Halfa (Khalfaya field) in the south-west of Iraq after signing January 27, 2010 an agreement with the French company Total (25%) and Malaysia's Petronas (25% stake). Chinese corporation owns 50% of shares. Proven oil reserves amount to 4.1 billion barrels. The document was signed for 20 years with the possibility of extension for another 5 years and provides for the obligation of the consortium for six years to increase oil production from the current field Halfa from 3.1 thousand barrels a day to 535 thousand barrels per day.

China National Petroleum and Gas Corporation and the British BP in 2009 signed a contract to develop the Rumaila oil field in South (province of Basra in southern Iraq) for a period of 20 years, renewable for another five years. The share of the Iraqi State Organization for Oil Marketing is 25% of the shares, the share of BP - 38% of the shares, the share of CNPC - 37%. Under the contract, which the Iraqi government approved on November 3, 2009, Iraq will receive about 98% of revenue. By 2016, oil production from this field will be 2.85 million barrels per day. 17 June 2014 BP began evacuating non-key employees working in the field Rumaila. According to company management and its operation have not yet been subjected to exposure.

Hot vacancy on offshore platforms, great salary! Paramedic/Offshore Medic - Iraq, Kuwait. This is an entry-level position that does not require previous experience on oil rig, but required besides being adequately trained and certified, inherency of the personal qualities like leadership and ability to quickly evaluate situations and act as ascribed by the instructions doing job with as little delay as possible.

Another Chinese contractor that operates in Iraq, is China National offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC, China National Offshore Oil Corporation), which is involved in the development of the oil fields, located in the southern Maysan province, particularly in El ACCF, Bazargan and Abu Gareb. The confirmed reserves of oil in these oilfields are estimated at 2.6 billion barrels. The share of Chinese companies makes 63.75%, the shares of the Turkish Turkish Petroleum is 11,25%. The contract was signed with the Iraqi government in 2010 for a period of 20 years. Under the terms of the contract, during the first 6 years, oil production in these 3 oilfields should be increased from 100,000 to 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

There are more than 10,000 chinese oil rig workers, who got jobs in the oilfields of Iraq. The employees from China mostly work in Shiite areas in the south of Iraq. On June 19, 2014, the chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said that China would do its best to help all their fellow citizens, working on oil rigs of Iraq in the areas, where the situation might turn dangerous, to get evacuated to the safer areas.

Russian oil companies in Iraq

There are three Russian oil drilling companies, operating in Iraq: Lucoil, Bashneft, and Gazprom Neft

Lukoil acquired the right to participate in the development of the West Qurna-2 December 12, 2009, as part of a consortium with Norway's Statoil. It is the world's largest project, implemented by the Russian company. At the end of May 2012 Lukoil bought out the share of the Norwegian company. As a result, the equity participation in the project is as follows: Lukoil - 75%, the state North Oil Company of Iraq - 25%. West Qurna-2 - field in southern Iraq, 65 km north-west of the large port city of Basra is considered to hold one of the largest oil deposits in the world. On October 2013 the recoverable reserves of oil there were estimated at about 14 billion barrels. In January 2013 Lukoil signed with Iraq a supplemental agreement to the contract, in which the fixed target level of production in the project was set at the level of 1.2 million barrels of oil per day for the period of 19.5 years and the extension of the total duration of the contract to 25 years, renewable for 5 years. March 29, 2014 the company LUKOIL Overseas (the operator of Lucoil's foreign projects) started the commercial production of oil in June, its volume reached 200 thousand barrels of oil per day by the end of the year. LUKOIL Overseas is building oil processing gas turbine power plant, export pipeline and a tank farm at West Qurna-2 oilfield.

Another oil drilling contractor, "Gazprom Neft" in consortium with foreign companies January 28, 2010, signed an agreement to develop the Badra oil field (Wasit province in eastern Iraq) with estimated geological reserves of 3 billion barrels of oil. The development of this field is one of the first international mining projects by "Gazprom Neft".

Export shipment of oil is expected to begin in late July - early August 2014. According to the plans of peak production should constitute daily 170 thousand barrels, or about 8.5 million tonnes a year to be reached until 2017. This level can be maintained for seven years.

The Russian company "Bashneft" in consortium with British Premier Oil in November 2012, signed with the South Oil Company, representing the interests of Iraq, the contract for exploration, development and production in the oil block 12 in the provinces of Najaf and Muthanna in the south. The share of the Russian company is 70%, while the UK partner holds 30%. Under the contract, the consortium must pay the Iraqi side $US 15 million proportionally to the participation: $US 10.5 million - "Bashneft", $US 4.5 million - Premier Oil with the exploration starting in 2014.

In 2009, when the first postwar tender in Iraq was held to award the licenses for areas of oil fields, the representatives of leading Western energy companies, such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP flocked to Baghdad. At the time that tender was one of the most anticipated events that could radically affect the course of the development of the global oil industry. But the years passed, bringing along the disappointment. The forth tender of the kind, held in Baghdad in May 2012, was attended by none of those companies, and no bids from their behalf were made by brokers.

The lack of interest to the last Iraqi oilfield license trading from the side of the foreign investors was due to their getting disillusioned about the prospects of getting involved with the Iraqi oil sector as a whole. The reason was political instability, poor terms for license holders, and poor infrastructure. Working conditions in Iraq turned out very hard for oil drilling contractors, both in terms of revenue and in the terms of risk. The compensation for the oil production, which is paid by the government to the oil rig operators, are extremely low - only $US 5.5 per each barrel of the oil produced.