Oil Majors Boost Plans to Expand Iraq Oil Output
July 19,2010
By HASSAN HAFIDH, BAGHDAD—Despite another violent day here Sunday, foreign oil companies unveiled several deals recommitting themselves to a major petroleum-development push that the government hopes will kick-start Iraq’s vast but dilapidated oil industry.
Iraq’s oil ministry has been hosting a two-day symposium for executives of companies that last year won contracts to help develop some of Iraq’s biggest oil fields. While some companies have already begun working on their blocs, Iraqi oil officials and Western executives have acknowledged immense logistical challenges in the push.
Two oil-licensing auctions last year awarded 11 deals to international oil companies. If all the companies live up to their production promises, the projects will add nearly 10 million barrels a day of capacity by 2017 to Iraq’s existing output of 2.5 million barrels a day.
Getting to that level, however, will require immense investment by the companies and tricky coordination between the rival firms and the government. One big question is how the players will coordinate to fund and build a massive, shared water-injection system needed to boost field performance in the south of the country. By injecting water or other fluids into older fields, engineers can boost production.
Exxon Mobil Corp. is leading a steering committee, including all the international firms that signed development deals, that is exploring how to build the system. An executive of the company told the symposium Sunday that a study on the project will be ready in September.
Still, companies signaled they are pushing ahead with their plans, saying they are lining up contracts to start drilling. An executive at Italian oil major Eni SpA said the company expects to award a tender to drill more than 100 oil wells at the Zubair oil field in southern Iraq in August. “We received the bids, and we are in the process of assessing them,” the executive said.
Several well-known oil-services companies submitted offers, including Weatherford International Ltd., Schlumberger Ltd. and General Petroleum Corp. of Egypt, the executive said. The wells will be drilled over three years, he said.
July 19,2010
By HASSAN HAFIDH, BAGHDAD—Despite another violent day here Sunday, foreign oil companies unveiled several deals recommitting themselves to a major petroleum-development push that the government hopes will kick-start Iraq’s vast but dilapidated oil industry.
Iraq’s oil ministry has been hosting a two-day symposium for executives of companies that last year won contracts to help develop some of Iraq’s biggest oil fields. While some companies have already begun working on their blocs, Iraqi oil officials and Western executives have acknowledged immense logistical challenges in the push.
Two oil-licensing auctions last year awarded 11 deals to international oil companies. If all the companies live up to their production promises, the projects will add nearly 10 million barrels a day of capacity by 2017 to Iraq’s existing output of 2.5 million barrels a day.
Getting to that level, however, will require immense investment by the companies and tricky coordination between the rival firms and the government. One big question is how the players will coordinate to fund and build a massive, shared water-injection system needed to boost field performance in the south of the country. By injecting water or other fluids into older fields, engineers can boost production.
Exxon Mobil Corp. is leading a steering committee, including all the international firms that signed development deals, that is exploring how to build the system. An executive of the company told the symposium Sunday that a study on the project will be ready in September.
Still, companies signaled they are pushing ahead with their plans, saying they are lining up contracts to start drilling. An executive at Italian oil major Eni SpA said the company expects to award a tender to drill more than 100 oil wells at the Zubair oil field in southern Iraq in August. “We received the bids, and we are in the process of assessing them,” the executive said.
Several well-known oil-services companies submitted offers, including Weatherford International Ltd., Schlumberger Ltd. and General Petroleum Corp. of Egypt, the executive said. The wells will be drilled over three years, he said.