Shell Global Solutions recently signed three licence agreements with the state-owned North Refineries Company of Iraq in Kirkuk, Northern Iraq.

Wood Mackenzie’s annual review of global upstream M&A suggests that peak levels of deal activity in 2010, particularly at the end of the year, bode well for another big year in 2011. The independent researchers identify four key prevailing themes that underpinned total spend of US$183 billion in 2010 as: Unconventional oil and gas, weak US gas prices, restructuring among the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and aggressive spending by the Asian National Oil Companies (NOCs).