West Asia Consolidates Gazprom’s Iraqi Assets

Gazprom’s West Asia LLC has taken full ownership of the two companies that operate the group’s oil projects in Iraq: IC LLC Badra Petroleum and Garmian Petroleum B.V., the latter renamed from Gazprom Neft Middle East B.V. on 6 June 2026. Details of the new structure have been reported in industry publications. According to those reports, Gazprom Neft ceased to be a shareholder in West Asia LLC in February 2025, leaving Gazprom Middle East LLC as its sole owner.

West Asia LLC: Company Profile

Incorporated in 2020 and headquartered in St. Petersburg, West Asia LLC was set up to manage Gazprom’s upstream projects abroad.

Until May 2025, the company was known as GPN-Middle East Projects LLC. A broader overhaul of Gazprom’s international management structure transferred it from Gazprom Neft PJSC to the parent group. It is now held through Gazprom Middle East LLC, Gazprom Assets Management LLC, and Gazprom Capital LLC — all subsidiaries of Gazprom PJSC.

West Asia LLC is a holding company, while oil production and processing are handled entirely by its operating subsidiaries.

Before assuming management of the Iraqi assets, West Asia LLC had been involved in one of Gazprom Neft’s Russian projects – Salym. The Salym asset, however, is no longer owned by West Asia LLC.

West Asia LLC’s Iraqi operating subsidiaries are:

• IC LLC Badra Petroleum
• Garmian Petroleum B.V.

Gazprom Neft Badra B.V. is also a part of West Asia LLC’s corporate structure. As of 2026, however, Gazprom Neft Badra B.V. had ceased active business operations.

Gazprom in Iraq: Key Facts

Gazprom first stated its interest in Iraqi hydrocarbons in 2008 and today operates two fields in the country. Subsoil rights remain with the Iraqi state, represented either by Iraqi federal authorities (as is the case with Badra Block) or by regional governmental bodies in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Iraqi federal region located in the country’s northern part (Garmian Block), while the contracts give foreign partners the rights to extract oil in exchange for either a service fee or a share of production that they can sell freely. This is the commonframework across the Middle East.

Badra Field

Badra sits in Wasit Governorate near the Iranian border. Estimated reserves stand at 2.1 billion barrels (around 287 million tonnes). The field has 22 wells, one oil treatment unit, and two gas processing trains. Commercial production started in 2014.

IC LLC Badra Petroleum is the current operator of the field. It operates under a service contract signed with the Iraqi authorities in 2010. In 2020, Badra Petroleum was redomiciled from Cyprus to Russia. The move reflected a broader shift by Russian companies out of foreign jurisdictions after the adoption of Russia’s Federal Law on International Companies.

The Badra contract was awarded to an international consortium. In addition to Badra Petroleum, which is owned by West Asia LLC, the consortium includes Korean, Malaysian, Turkish and Iraqi participants. Badra Petroleum holds the largest stake, at 30%, as well as the operator rights for the field.

Sarqala Field (Garmian Block)

The Sarqala field forms part of the Garmian Block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, 100 km south-east of Kirkuk. The reservoir produces light, sweet crude from technically demanding geology. The field came on stream in 2015; four wells are currently producing, and recoverable reserves exceed 93 million tonnes.

Garmian Petroleum B.V., formerly known as Gazprom Neft Middle East B.V., oversees the Garmian Blockoperations and develops Sarqala under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) entered into by Gazprom Neft Middle East in 2012. Since February 2025, Garmian Petroleum has been wholly owned by West Asia LLC.

The Sarqala PSC was signed by three parties. Garmian Petroleum holds 40% of the participating interest, while Western Zagros limited also holds 40%. The remaining 20% belongs to the government of the Kurdistan Region.

Operational Obstacles

Neither project has been straightforward. At Badra, the site had to be cleared of ordnance left over from the Iran-Iraq conflict before drilling could begin. In the Garmian Block, exports were thrown into disarray when the Iraq-Turkey pipeline was shut down following an international arbitration award in Iraq’s favour against Turkey in 2023.

Both operators have been meeting their contractual commitments despite these setbacks. The two companies also run community programmes and skills-training initiatives for local workers, and employ thousands of people across the region. West Asia LLC continues to act as Gazprom’s investment and management hub in Iraq.