China Replaces Western Energy Firms in Iraq’s Supergiant Oil Field

The official handover of the lead operator role on one of the world’s biggest oil fields – West Qurna 1 – from the U.S.’s ExxonMobil to China’s PetroChina was completed last week. However, unofficially China took control of the supergiant oil field from the moment at the end of June 2018 that ExxonMobil broke off talks with the Iraqi government about it being the lead partner in the country’s Common Seawater Supply Project (CSSP) and began a strategic withdrawal from all Iraq energy projects, as did other Western…