Petroceltic International has suspended its Iraqi operations and begun to evacuate "non-essential personnel" from the region on safety grounds.

Tullow Oil has successfully refinanced a large element of debt originally due for repayment this year.

Irish exploration firm Petroceltic has begun a multi-well drilling round in the Black Sea region which will include the highly anticipated Shakrok-1 well in Kurdistan, which is targeting an estimated 650 million barrels of oil.