Kurdistan's lustre fades

The haste for the region's assets has given way to a much more realistic view of its potential

A decade ago, Iraq's Kurdistan region was the darling of the oil world, a rare upstream province offering investors material exploration positions with large reserve potential-on juicy commercial terms. A string of independents stormed in, racking up drillbit success that de-risked the play. ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Total all snapped up acreage. The enthusiasm has faded. Kurdistan still has large reserves-though the estimated 7bn barrels now assumed by investors is well beneath the 45bn touted by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Production is solid. Despite persistent problems with the central government in Baghdad and frequent pipeline outages, exports from the region amounted to 0.