SNV board chairwoman Sara Akbar has decades of O&G experience, valuable accrued knowledge and a solid network for E&P opportunities in Iraq
CALGARY, Canada (Jan. 2, 2025)—Uncertainty? Risk?
On the contrary. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Sara Akbar sees opportunity—in a very big way.
After all, Ms. Akbar, Sonoro Energy’s board chairwoman, knows the region like the back of her hand. A Kuwaiti by birth, she became the region’s first female oil-and-gas engineer in 1981. She co-founded the tremendously successful Kuwait Energy Company. She’s tirelessly studied the geology of Iraq for decades, with great exploration and production success.
All of which translates to a rosy MENA outlook for Sonoro, which recently signed Heads of Agreement with both TransAtlantic Petroleum LLC and IPR Energy Group to explore production opportunities in Iraq.
“Uncertainty and risk are for those people who are not on the ground. If you are here, in the region, your ability to manage risk and being on the ground is a huge advantage,” Ms. Akbar, who’s based in Kuwait, recently said during an interview on CEO.ca’s Inside the Boardroom.
For Ms. Akbar, “it’s very normal, very familiar to work in these countries,” she added. “And for oil and gas countries, countries that depend this source of revenue, they will always push through during any kind of uncertainty, any kind of risk, and they mitigate the risk, but production never stops. Why? They rely heavily on these revenues in their budgets.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Ms. Akbar addressed a variety of topics, including:
Western companies operating in Iraq: “The past 10 to 15 years, many international companies came to Iraq to operate assets. The majority are Chinese companies. The Iraqi government wants to balance that by introducing Western-based companies. This is exactly what we’re trying to do . . . (help) create that balance in the landscape of Iraq.”
Exploration/development blocks in Iraq: “You can either go to directly negotiate or you can bid for these assets. I believe, at this point in time, it’s more likely you can negotiate any asset that you like . . . in addition, there are other assets, marginal fields, where you can bring niche technology. These opportunities are available in Iraq and those are the kinds of things we are pursuing.”
Sonoro’s strategic advantage on Iraq’s O&G geology: “We have the network, the knowledge of the subsurface, which is very important. I know these basins, I know people who know these basins inside out, so there is very small room for going wrong on a technical basis. So this is the biggest advantage here you have. The subsurface, you rarely get it wrong. And in addition to that, if you know how to manage your surface, and you manage your risks, and you have the relationships, and you know how to do business here, then you have it all.”
Sonoro’s immediate MENA focus: “For now we are focusing on the three countries that we have the maximum ability of succeeding in acquiring assets. And that is Iraq, Egypt and Libya. We are working on these three fronts in parallel in order to acquire these assets.”
Sonoro’s Heads of Agreement partners: “IPR, I’ve known them since I became an engineer, basically. They used to do a lot of excellent reservoir analysis work . . . TransAtlantic, I’ve known Malone (CEO and board chair N. Malone Mitchell III) for some time now, for a long time; he started a services company in Iraq and Turkey and eastern Europe. Malone is somebody that we really look forward to working with in developing assets, and we’ve identified some assets we want to pursue together . . . Once this prequalification process is over (in Iraq), we will engage with Iraqis in actually negotiating and discussing assets.”