Royal Dutch Shell announced on Tuesday that its joint operation in Iraq with the South Oil Company (SOC), Petronas and Missan Oil has shipped its first crude oil to Shell trading. Shell first entered the giant oil field in 2009, after winning a license from the Iraqi government which beat out 45 other international oil companies including ExxonMobil, and the China Natioinal Petroleum Corp.
The field’s name “Majnoon” comes from the Arabic word meaning “crazy” or “unbelievable.”
Production at the field is currently averaging 210,000 barrels of oil per day, which vastly exceeded the 175,000 bpd production target. The project has currently opened 18 new wells, and will eventually result in the largest central processing facility in all of Iraq, currently under construction.
Investing in Agricultural Biotech
Genetically modified crops are an extremely divisive topic. They were developed to increase yield and resist environmental detraction, yet there’s been a sympathetic movement toward keeping food organic and free from GMO components to mitigate any potential harm to humans they might cause. Either way you stand on the GMO issue, Monsanto is the biggest name in the game.
