Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services company, has posted a profit that edged out market forecasts and forecast a quicker industry recovery outside North America.

The initial development plan agreed by Royal Dutch Shell, Malaysian partner Petronas and Iraqi oil officials includes inviting oil service firms to drill 15 new wells, an Iraqi oil official said recently.

Crescent Petroleum has signed a co-operation agreement with Russia's Rosneft, in which the companies will seek deals jointly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. State-dominated Rosneft is Russia's largest oil company, and has in recent years started to expand internationally, and Crescent Petroleum - together with affiliate Dana Gas - is the region's largest privately owned oil and gas company.

Nordine Cherouati - until recently the head of Algeria's hydrocarbons industry-sector regulator Alnaft - has been named the new chief executive of state-owned oil and gas giant Sonatrach, in a first step to normalise operations and management of the company following the dismissal of most of its senior leadership after an intensive corruption probe.

A deal between Iraq's central government in Baghdad and its semiautonomous northern Kurdish region to restart oil exports could come within days, Iraq's deputy oil minister has been quoted as saying.