According to Kurdistan Press, according to Oil Price, the American company ConocoPhillips has agreed to buy 42 percent of the shares of a development company owned by BP, which is responsible for implementing the project to develop four major oil fields in the Kirkuk region. With this agreement, ConocoPhillips returns to the Iraqi oil industry after more than a decade.The Kirkuk Fields Development Project is being implemented under a development and production agreement between the Iraqi government and BP, with an estimated investment value of about $25 billion. The first phase of the project aims to extract more than three billion barrels of oil equivalent from recoverable reserves and increase the production capacity of these old fields.

According to the terms of the agreement, the BP-ConocoPhillips joint venture will operate as a capital partnership, and the two companies will benefit from the project's benefits in proportion to the increase in production and costs, without the need for significant initial investment. At the same time, the Northern Iraqi Oil Company and the Northern Iraqi Gas Company will continue to be responsible for the executive operations and day-to-day management of the fields.

The agreement comes as the Iraqi government seeks to increase the presence of American and European companies in the country's energy sector.Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has reportedly held talks in recent months with major American companies, including ConocoPhillips and Chevron, to invest in energy projects, seen as a counterbalance to the growing presence of Chinese companies in Iraq’s oil industry.

Discovered in 1927 in the Babagurgur region, the Kirkuk oil field is one of the oldest and largest in the Middle East. At its peak, the field produced about 1 million barrels of oil per day, but decades of war, sanctions, aging facilities, and lack of investment have reduced its output to about 285,000 to 330,000 barrels per day.

Meanwhile, Iraq is set to resume oil exports to Turkey via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline from March 2026, sending about 250,000 barrels per day.Baghdad is also pursuing the revival of the Kirkuk-Banias pipeline through Syria as an option to diversify oil export routes and reduce dependence on the Strait of Hormuz.

Experts believe that the partnership between BP and ConocoPhillips could be a turning point in restoring the oil production capacity of northern Iraq. In addition to increasing production, the project is also important from a geopolitical perspective and reflects Baghdad’s efforts to attract capital and technology from Western companies and strengthen their role in Iraq’s energy industry.