Iraq, which has been on the mass media's spotlight and international focus in recent years, has a record of oil and bitumen dating back to the earliest human civilizations more than five thousand years ago. Here we look at the emergence of Iraq's oil industry in the past century rooted in the heritage of the past millennia and fashioned by the modern geopolitics and geoscience.

A move from Drilling Fluids Engineering to Human Resources allowed Jatinder Peters to rise to one of the highest levels in ONGC - and gave her the opportunity to encourage other women to emulate her.

The professional workforce in the hydrocarbon industry is aging and over half of today's workforce will retire within the next 10 years. This ‘brain gap' must be addressed before it is too late.

Syncrude, the Canadian energy giant that is producing some 350,000bopd from the oil sands in Alberta, has been charged with the deaths of nearly 500 ducks in a massive, toxic settling pond in April 2008. Pictures of sludge-covered birds garnered international attention. The operator highly regrets the incident and says "we feel horrible this occurred and there's a huge resolve in our organization since then to implement the appropriate changes to help prevent it from happening again."

Fibre optic sensing technology offers the potential for a cost-effective, reliable reservoir monitoring system as an alternative to seismic systems based on electronics. Interested in learning about fibre optic seismic sensors? This article has been designed to get you started.

Offshore Electromagnetic surveying, CSEM, was commercialized in 2002 as a new exploration technology for finding hydrocarbons. Following some seven years of trial and failure, we have asked one of the early users of the technology to elaborate on his views of the value and future of this innovative tool.

"Victoria is probably the largest undeveloped discovery on the Norwegian continental shelf," title Rune Hope said in a presentation he gave to the 3rdbiennial petroleum geology conference "Exploration Revived 2009" in Bergen in March. According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate it may contain at least 118 Bm3 of gas (4Tcf; 740MMboe), possibly more.

With more than 2 billion barrels of oil to be recovered, StatoilHydro has a huge resource to tap into in the Alberta oil sands, which may last into the second half of this century.

Recent tests in the Arctic permafrost clearly demonstrates that gas hydrates can be produced using current technologies, opening the door for a new, viable energy source.

Although some major oil producers view the prospects offshore UK as too small for their attention, their exit leaves interesting opportunities for smaller companies.

A seismic line displayed in GEO ExPro caught the interest of a dedicated geologist as he spotted a pattern that resembled that of a major oil discovery he knew very well. His observation eventually led to Chevron's application in the Norwegian 20th licensing round for acreage that may include a large prospect along the North Atlantic Volcanic Margin.