IRAQ: Ambitious drilling plan for Iraqi oil companies

Record ID: 343487

  • Title: IRAQ: Ambitious drilling plan for Iraqi oil companies
  • Date: 7th December 2009
  • Summary: BASRA, IRAQ (RECENT - NOVEMBER 26, 2009) (REUTERS) IRAQ STATE-OWNED OIL COMPANY DRILLING SITE DRILLING TOWERS DRILLING TOWERS, EQUIPMENT AND FLARE FLAMES AT OIL REFINERY VARIOUS OF DRILLING EQUIPMENT AT COMPANY SITE IRAQI DRILLING COMPANY DIRECTOR IDREES AL-YASSIRI AT HIS OFFICE IRAQI DRILLING COMPANY DIRECTOR IDREES AL-YASSIRI SITTING ON HIS DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Ar
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Industry,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA8NB3QX660G77N48UWBSDZ4HCG
  • Story Text: The state-run Iraq Drilling Company plans to drill 180 oil wells in 2010, with plans to drill more than 250 new wells every year from 2011, the head of the company said.
    Thirty of the new wells planned for 2010 will be in northern oilfields and 150 in the south, adding roughly 360,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq's output capacity, Iraqi Drilling Company director Idrees al-Yassiri said.
    "We have agreed with national oil companies, and I mean oil extracting companies like Iraq's South Oil Company, North Oil Company and Missan company to conduct an ambitious large-scale programme for 2010, which includes drilling 180 wells using 40 drilling towers. The company had only 18 under the former regime, but now we will have 40 drilling towers. Half of the towers have already been commissioned and the rest will begin production next year," Idrees al-Yassiri said.
    The number of new wells next year would exceed the total number drilled in the six years since the U.S. invasion, he added.
    "Each well will produce 2,000 barrels a day with the 180 wells together producing 360,000 barrels a day bringing billions of dollars of additional revenue to Iraq," Al-Yassri added Iraq currently produces around 2.5 million barrels a day, and has struggled to ramp up production because its oil infrastructure has been left in a state of decay after decades of war, sanctions and under investment.
    That may soon change. The country is in the process of signing multi- billion dollar deals with global oil majors that will nearly triple crude output to 7 million bpd and transform it into the third-largest crude producer in the world.
    The first agreement finalised is for BP <BP.L> and China's CNPC to develop Rumaila, Iraq's largest oilfield. It was the only contract successfully bid on at Iraq's first tender of oilfield deals in June.
    Subsequent negotiations have led to initial agreements for an Eni-led <ENI.MI> group to develop Zubair and an Exxon Mobil-led <XOM.N> group to take on West Qurna Phase One. A second auction of oilfield contracts for 10 largely undeveloped fields will take place Dec. 11-12.
    The drilling programme spoken of by Yassiri appeared to be separate to those deals. He did not elaborate.
    Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has said Iraq will not sit by idly, leaving all the work to foreign firms, but would push on with its own plans to boost output.
    Yassiri said the Iraq Drilling Company had drilled 22 new wells in an oilfield bordering Kuwait, aimed at preventing "leakage" across the border. It had also drilled one new well on the Iranian border and recommissioned another.
    Iraq is in talks with both Kuwait and Iran over shared oilfields.
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