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Iraq to Boost West Qurna 1 Production by 50K bpd

A security man in front of the gate of the West Qurna 1 oil field operating authority. (Reuters)
A security man in front of the gate of the West Qurna 1 oil field operating authority. (Reuters)
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Iraq to Boost West Qurna 1 Production by 50K bpd

A security man in front of the gate of the West Qurna 1 oil field operating authority. (Reuters)
A security man in front of the gate of the West Qurna 1 oil field operating authority. (Reuters)

US energy giant ExxonMobil Corp has formally exited the West Qurna 1 oilfield in southern Iraq and handed over its operations to PetroChina as lead contractor, a deputy oil minister told Reuters on Monday.
Iraq and PetroChina plan to boost production by 50,000 to 600,000 bpd at the end of 2024, Basim Mohammed, deputy oil minister for upstream affairs, said.
Senior Iraqi oil officials met with executives from ExxonMobil, PetroChina, and Basra Oil Co on Monday at the West Qurna 1 field near Basra to mark Exxon's complete exit and the handover of its operations to PetroChina.
"We are meeting today to bid farewell to ExxonMobil, and at the same time we congratulate PetroChina for becoming the lead contractor," Mohammed said.
PetroChina holds the largest stake in the field after the departure of Exxon.
Last year, Iraq signed a sale agreement to acquire 22.7% of ExxonMobil's stake in West Qurna 1 by Iraq's state-run Basra Oil Co.(BOC), while Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina bought the remaining 10% of Exxon’s stake, increasing its share to 20%.

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Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Egypt's cabinet approved a 4.6 trillion Egyptian pound ($91 billion) draft state budget for the financial year that will begin in July, a government statement said on Wednesday, as it continues to tighten its finances under an IMF program.

Expenditures will rise by 18% and revenue by 19% over the current 2024/25 budget. Revenue is expected to hit 3.1 trillion pounds, working out to a deficit of about 1.5 trillion pounds ($30 billion).

The increased expenditure partly reflects elevated headline inflation, which was running at an annual 12.8% in February.

Financial reforms under an $8 billion financial reform program signed in March 2024 with the International Monetary Fund have helped Egypt bring inflation down from a peak of 38% in September 2023.

The IMF this month approved the disbursement of $1.2 billion to Egypt after its fourth review of the program.

The new budget targets a primary surplus of 795 billion pounds, equal to 4% of GDP, up from the 3.5% primary surplus originally targeted in the 2024/25 budget.

The IMF granted the government a waiver in the fourth review after the surplus came in 0.5% of GDP lower than Egypt's earlier commitment.

In its third review in June, the IMF praised Egypt for its "strict control of spending".

The new budget also lowers public debt to 82.9% of GDP from an expected 92% in 2024/25, the cabinet statement said.

The cabinet said 732.6 billion pounds in spending in the new budget would be allocated for subsidies, grants and social benefits, an increase of 15.2%.

The budget increases commodities and bread subsidies by 20% to 160 billion pounds. It will also include 75 billion pounds to subsidize petroleum products, 75 billion pounds to subsidize electricity and 3.5 billion pounds to subsidize natural gas deliveries to households, the statement added.