Genel sole contractor at N Iraqi field

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Genel Energy increased its stake four-fold in one of Northern Iraq’s largest oil fields and became the leading oil and gas player in Northern Iraq, according to a company statement released yesterday.

The local firm purchased 40 percent Chia Surkh exploration block shares from Longford Energy for $68 million, said Genel Energy in an e-mail statement. Total shares of Forbes & Manhattan, a subsidiary of Longford Energy in the exploration block rose to 80 percent with the recent purchase.

Chia Surkh covers 984 square-kilometers in the southern part of Northern Iraq and has prospective resources estimated at more than 300 million barrels of oil.

The payment will consist of $42 million to be paid directly to Forbes & Manhattan and $26 million to be paid to the Kurdistan Regional Government in respect of F&M’s outstanding obligations. Forbes & Manhattan is the only company scheduled to enter the London bourse FTSE 100 Index following the merger between Genel, the Turkish company owned by Mehmet Emin Karamehmet and Valares, a fund financed by former BP chief executive Tony Hayward in November.

Despite the increasing number of contracts signed between Turkish companies and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraq’s central government stated previously that no contacts would be accepted without their approval.