Sitting in his well-furnished home in Kut, in Iraq's Wasit province, 41-year-old Iraqi oil production engineer Hadi Obaid Mery said he is grateful to China ZhenHua Oil for changing his fate and helping him create a more dignified life for his family.

"I lived in a clay house in a remote village as a child," he told Chinese journalists in a recent online interview. "Dad passed away when I was eight, and my family was in financial straits.

"My brothers had to quit school and work to support the family. Only I continued my schooling at Baghdad University, the highest academic institution in Iraq."

His fortunes turned around in October 2010, when he was employed by the Wasit-based Al Waha Petroleum company, a joint venture between ZhenHua Oil and PetroChina, that is developing the Ahdeb oilfield in Iraq.

He is now a qualified oil extraction engineer, managing over 100 local employees.

Beijing-headquartered ZhenHua Oil, established in 2003, is involved in the operation of two oil fields in Iraq — Ahdeb and East Baghdad.

Located 180 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Ahdeb has a peak annual crude oil production of more than 7 million metric tons. Jointly operated by ZhenHua Oil and PetroChina, it was officially put into operation in June 2011.

The East Baghdad oilfield, also located southeast of the Iraqi capital, is operated by ZhenHua Oil, which signed its oilfield development and production service contract with Iraq's Ministry of Oil in May 2018.The project is expected to produce 4 million tons of crude oil a year.

Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said Chinese energy companies have increasingly expanded their operations overseas, driven by the quest for resources to fuel their domestic growth.

By offering job opportunities and training programs in such regions, the companies not only fulfill their social responsibility but also foster local economic growth, he said.

Ma Cheng, general manager of ZhenHua Oil's East Baghdad oilfield project, said: "In recent years, ZhenHua Oil has continued to promote programs for fostering young Iraqi oil talent through study scholarships and short-term training in China. The aim is to provide them with a comprehensive understanding of China's technical capabilities, enabling them to apply their acquired skills and knowledge to the development of Iraq's oil industry. Simultaneously, this initiative seeks to facilitate the global outreach of Chinese technologies and companies."

In more than a decade of deep involvement in the Iraqi market, ZhenHua Oil has created more than 5,000 local jobs and made positive contributions to local social development and the improvement of people's livelihoods.

Last year, with the support of the Ministry of Education, ZhenHua Oil, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, and Southwest Petroleum University in Chengdu, Sichuan province, launched the ZhenHua Oil Scholarship Program for talented young Iraqis to study in China. It is the first long-term rolling scholarship program in Iraq provided by an international oil company, and more than 30 Iraqi students have now studied in China through it.

The scholarship project has attracted widespread attention and was included in the "People-to-People Connect" achievement list for last year's third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

"China-Iraq cooperation contains unlimited potential," Wang Hehua, general manager of the ZhenHua Oil Research Institute, said.

"Through joint scientific research, talent exchange and cooperation, we have not only promoted the improvement of the technical level of local Iraqi companies, but also enabled ZhenHua Oil and other Chinese companies to introduce more technologies with independent intellectual property rights into the Iraqi market."

Qi Daliang contributed to the story.