The company is finishing up work on a 40-acre compound near Basra. Earlier this month, several dozen employees moved in and set up a mobile barracks. Schlumberger said it expected to have 300 employees there by July and nearly double that by the end of the year.
*****
There are 36,000 oil field workers in Iraq, according to R. P. Eddy, chief executive of emerging markets consultant Ergo, and he expects that number to rise to 76,000 by 2015.
*****
So if anyone knows what security company they are working with, go ahead and put that in the comments or send me the stuff and I will make an edit. My guess is that this will provide a ton of jobs for Iraqis and expats–both for security work but all just oil industry work. Something to keep an eye on. –Matt
Edit: 4/21/2010- This recent article in Businessweek details even more companies that are moving into Iraq.
——————————————————————-
Schlumberger Gambles on Iraq Work
APRIL 16, 2010
By RUSSELL GOLD
(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)
Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield service company, has begun staffing an Iraqi business operation, one of the first such moves by a western energy company in decades.
The company is finishing up work on a 40-acre compound near Basra. Earlier this month, several dozen employees moved in and set up a mobile barracks. Schlumberger said it expected to have 300 employees there by July and nearly double that by the end of the year.
Chief Executive Andrew Gould said in an interview from his office in Paris that he believes the security situation has improved considerably in the past year, and the opportunity to provide support to major oil firms is building. If security improves and oilfield work increases, a $3 billion to $4 billion market annually is possible by mid-decade, he said.
The situation in southern Iraq no longer resembles the chaos that engulfed the country five years ago. It has become “more traditional risk of tribal disturbance and banditry rather than any politically motivated security incident,” he said.
Unlike companies working in Iraq under government or military contract, Schlumberger symbolizes the nascent return by western corporations to the country, where many of the world’s largest oilfields are being opened up to foreign oil companies for the first time in a generation.