It was KEC's Iraq assets that almost certainly lured in UEG. Gross output from Iraq’s Block 9 (KEC 60% op, Dragon 30%; EGPC 10%) has grown to 22,000 b/d since its Q4 2015 start-up (MEES, 29 January 2016), and that is only scraping the Faihaa field’s long-term potential.

Faihaa, an extension of Iran’s 112,000 b/d Yadavaran, was heralded as the “largest discovery in Iraq in the last 10 years” back in 2015. Two more wells are due online by year-end which KEC...