Iraq/Kurdistan: Falling Prices, Rising Threats Cool Interest in Kurdish Oil

Apr 26, 2015 | Bram Janssen and Paul Schemm, Associated Press
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The hall for the Irbil Oil and Gas Exhibition this week was crowded with company displays, executives and investors. But conspicuously absent were international oil giants like Shell, Exxon-Mobil and Chevron that only a year ago were eager to exploit the promising reserves of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

The threat of Islamic State group militants, who have swept across much of northern Iraq and are battling Kurdish forces only miles away from the Kurdish capital, Irbil, has dampened international interest. The security threat only increases oil companies' doubts, on top of falling oil prices and disputes between the Kurds and the Iraqi central government in Baghdad.

At the exhibition — the main oil and gas industry gathering in the Kurdish region — slick displays with giant video screens advertising oil services companies and drilling equipment fill the hall festooned with Kurdish flags as young men in suits bustle around importantly.