Chevron to Sign Oil Investment Accords With Iraq on Friday

Chevron Corp. expects to sign accords with Iraq on Friday that will advance its negotiations about investing in large oil fields, according to a senior company executive.

(Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp. expects to sign accords with Iraq on Friday that will advance its negotiations about investing in large oil fields, according to a senior company executive. The oil major is in exclusive talks with Iraq over the West Qurna-2 field, the country’s second-largest oil complex formerly operated by Lukoil PJSC, and Nasiriyah, a smaller operation thought to hold extensive exploration prospects. The accords are likely to be non-binding, but will show Chevron’s commitment to eventually signing commercial agreements for the fields, the executive said.

Chevron is also part of a consortium of US and international companies exploring the potential for building a pipeline that would help Iraq export oil by avoiding the Strait of Hormuz, the senior company executive said. Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported that the company is in talks to revive the long-defunct Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline, a 500-mile (800-kilometer) conduit that runs through Syria to the Mediterranean coast. Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi met with Chevron executives in Houston on Thursday as part of a tour of the US.

Earlier this week, he met with President Donald Trump at the White House. Trump said “massive” new oil partnerships would be announced the coming days. “We appreciate the chance to meet with Iraqi leaders and talk about how our expertise in building large oil and gas projects throughout the world can support Iraq as it further develops its abundant energy resources,” Clay Neff, Chevron’s upstream president said in a statement.

Foreign Investment OPEC’s second-largest producing member before the war, Iraq was forced to cut oil production more than 60% when exporting vessels were blocked from exiting through the Strait of Hormuz, straining government finances in a country already poorer than some of its neighbors like Kuwait and Qatar. The country wants to attract foreign investment, particularly from the US, to expand its oil production and reduce its reliance on the the Persian Gulf chokepoint. Fresh strikes from both the US and Iran over the past week underscored the need for long-term alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, which was again mostly closed to shipping in the past few days after causing the biggest energy supply disruption in history earlier this year.

Chevron has been in talks about investing in Iraq for more than a year. West Qurna-2 produces about 460,000 barrels a day and is now 100% owned by state-owned entited after Russian producer Lukoil was sanctioned by the US in 2025. Chevron believes there is significant potential to increase production at both West Qurna-2 and Nasiriyah, the senior company official said.

Trump backed Al-Zaidi for the post of prime minister in April, believing his main rival — former premier Nouri al-Maliki — was too close to Iran. Al-Zaidi is a political novice, but the White House has expressed hope that he can clamp down on Iran-backed militias in Iraq while opening up the country’s oil sector more to American companies.