Maer commanded 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment as a Lieutenant-Colonel, deploying to Maysan, Iraq in 2004/5 in the aftermath of the invasion.
The Maysan Oil Company (MOC) is responsible for fields in the Maysan province which include six producing fields (Bazergan, Abu-Gharb, Fakka and Halfaya), as well as Majnoon, which it operates in partnership with the South Oil Company.
As of October 2008, thirteen provinces had successfully completed transition to provincial Iraqi control: al Muthanna, Dhi Qar, Najaf, Maysan, Dahuk, Arbil, Sulaymaniyah, Karbala, Basra, Al-Qadisiyah, Al-Anbar, Babil and Wasit.