Wildcat International holds strategic roundtable for The Oil and Gas Year Kurdistan Region of Iraq 2013

The event was held under the patronage of Dr. Ashti Hawrami, Minister of Natural Resources of the Kurdistanof the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Entitled "On the Line: Kurdistan's path from exploration frontier to production hub," the event brought together executives from leading exploration and production companies and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government to discuss the state of exploration, development and monetisation of the region's hydrocarbons resources. The Oil & Gas Year CEO Guillaume Doane and Managing Editor Simon Johns moderated the roundtable.

The first two sessions were titled "On target" and "On the field" and brought together Dr. Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources; Donnie MacDonald, president and country manager for Iraq at Chevron; Leo Koot, managing director at The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company; Ervin Kroell, senior vice-president, Middle East and Caspian at OMV; and Richard Herbert, executive vice-president, exploration and development at Talisman Energy to discuss the Kurdistan Region's unique exploration challenges, including the required infrastructure and oilfield services developments for the region to reach oil output targets.

Sessions three and four, "On the money" and "On the border," brought together Dr. Ashti Hawrami; Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, chairman of DNO; Mehmet Sepil, president of Genel Energy; Osman Shahenshah, CEO of Afren; Todd Kozel, chairman and CEO of Gulf Keystone; and Baz Karim, chairman of KAR Group to discuss the state of regional investment, geopolitical tensions and regional options for the monetisation of the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas resources.

Discussing the issue of export pipelines for the region's oil production, Minister Hawrami said, "The exports are already on the go, and we're talking about minimising costs by building pipelines."

"For anyone interested in investing in Kurdistan oil and gas, this was a premier opportunity to learn from the region's biggest experts and network with top-level contacts," said The Oil & Gas Year CEO Guillaume Doane. "By combining discussion panels with live voting sessions, we were able to get on the money, up to the minute assessments of what's happening in the region."

The strategic roundtable will be published in The Oil & Gas Year Kurdistan Region of Iraq 2013, which is due to be launched in May 2013 at a gala event in Erbil.

The Oil & Gas Year is the flagship title of Wildcat International, publisher of business intelligence resources. The Oil & Gas Year is a series of executive books focussed on individual hydrocarbons territories. The reports are both valuable resources and critical business tools for energy investors, highlighting and promoting key actors and opportunities. The Oil & Gas Year distributes to more than 44,000 readers in 100 countries worldwide.