U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) is on the hunt for a new oil investment, and it is looking in the potentially lucrative and unstable area of Iraq.
Chevron is mulling over a memorandum of understanding with the Iraqi government to further explore and develop one of Iraq's Nassiriya oilfield in the south, according to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.
The size and scope of the potential agreement has not yet been defined, but will likely be a smaller deal defined in terms of hundreds of millions.
The oilfield is a tricky one to explore, according to the WSJ, but estimates peg its holdings at around 4.4 billion barrels of crude.
Currently, the Nassiriya oilfield produces about 90,000 bpd-but the oilfield-and the country in general--has been rocked with protests, adding another layer of risk for the U.S. major to any project undertaken in Iraq.
The investment comes after Chevron's $5 billion Noble Acquisition, which helped the U.S. major to get its hands on the giant offshore Leviathan gas field at a time when most oil and gas companies are too busy writing down their assets rather than making new investments.
Despite its search for additional investments, Chevron reported a net loss of $8.3 billion for Q2 on the back of impairment charges as oil prices fell and as it pulled entirely out of Venezuela-the latter which resulted in $2.6 billion in writedowns.
The $8.3 billion loss for Q2 compares to earnings of $4.3 billion for Q2 2019.
Chevron also warned in its Q2 report that Q3's financial results may continue to be depressed.
Chevron did not comment on the potential deal, according to the WSJ.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More