Quick Facts

  • Crescent Petroleum is the only international oil company to have had a continuous presence in Baghdad for almost 20 years.
  • Crescent Petroleum signed in 2005 a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Oil Exploration Company (OEC) of Iraq, a division of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil. The agreement covers technical co-operation and training, and includes an exploration and appraisal study on an area assigned for Crescent Petroleum by OEC in southern Iraq.
  • A Joint Steering Committee for technical cooperation has also been set up between Crescent Petroleum and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil to facilitate and implement the terms of the MOU.
  • Crescent Petroleum performed detailed studies and conducted negotiations with the Ministry of Oil for the development of the giant Ratawi oil field, in southern Iraq.
  • In February 2023 Crescent Petroleum signed three long-term development contracts with Iraq’s Ministry of Oil to appraise, develop, and produce gas from two blocks in Diyala province and one development in Southern Iraq.

Crescent Petroleum is fully committed to the development of opportunities across Iraq to support the redevelopment of the country.  It is the only international oil company to have maintained a continuous presence in Iraq through its offices in Baghdad for almost 20 years. Additional offices have been set up in  recent years in Erbil, Suleymania and Basra to support the growing operations of Crescent Petroleum in Iraq.

During the early and mid nineties, Crescent Petroleum was one of the select international oil companies encouraged to visit Baghdad to negotiate petroleum development contracts for ten giant undeveloped fields each with indicated reserves between one and ten billion barrels (mainly in the south of the country) and nine blocks in the Western Desert.

In 2005, Crescent Petroleum signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Oil Exploration Company (OEC) of Iraq, a division of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, which was one of the first agreements of its kind with a Middle Eastern petroleum company. The MOU covers technical co-operation and training and includes an exploration and appraisal study on an area assigned for Crescent Petroleum by OEC in southern Iraq. A Joint Steering Committee for the implementation of this MOU was set up between Crescent Petroleum and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil. Under this MOU and during the period of the exploration study, Crescent Petroleum was engaged in the training of personnel from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and its affiliate companies, for the strengthening of ties and the sharing of knowledge with the Ministry, in addition to providing full team participation to the Ministry throughout all phases of the study.

Crescent Petroleum has already carried out detailed studies on other areas in Iraq, notably the giant Ratawi oil-field in Southern Iraq, whose estimated reserves are over 10 billion barrels. The Company performed detailed technical studies and proposed a fast track development program for Ratawi to develop the field within 18 months and achieve a plateau production of 250,000bbld and 300mmscfd of associated gas.

Ratawi is one of the major super-giant fields with over 10 billion barrels of oil in place that are ear marked for speedy development to boost the oil production capacity of Iraq.

In February 2023 Crescent Petroleum signed three twenty-year agreements with Iraq’s Ministry of Oil to appraise, develop, and produce oil and gas from two blocks in Diyala governorate and one in Basra governorate. The agreements will deliver much needed natural gas to fuel nearby power plants and improve government services, creating thousands of new jobs in Diyala and Basra. The contracts follow Crescent Petroleum’s successful award in the Oil Ministry’s Fifth Bid Round.
Crescent Petroleum will develop the Gilabat-Qumar and Khashim Ahmer-Injana fields in Diyala Province, to initially produce 250 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd) of natural gas. A third exploration block, the Khider Al-Mai block in Basra province, will be explored and developed to add further supplies of oil and gas.

Crescent Petroleum is committed to meeting up to 90 percent local employment at its operations and will lead a variety of social performance projects to deliver training and capacity building, education, and social services support to benefit the residents of Diyala and the surrounding regions.