- Title: IRAQ: Plans to increase oil exports
- Date: 8th December 2009
- Summary: FILE, SOUTH OIL COMPANY, BASRA, IRAQ (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF OIL REFINERY WITH STORAGE TANKS, FLARES AND WORKERS TRACKING SHOT OF SOUTH OIL COMPANY IN BASRA CITY
- Embargoed: 23rd December 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Energy
- Reuters ID: LVA4GXF26KTT393COON69J0GF93I
- Story Text: Iraq aims to install four new floating oil terminals and three new undersea oil pipelines that will boost export capacity to 8 million barrels per day from a current 1.9 million bpd, a top oil official said.
Dhiya Jaafar, current chief executive of Iraq's South Oil Co. (SOC), which oversees the bulk of exports from the country's vast oil reserves told Reuters work should be completed on the new terminals and pipelines in the second half of 2011.
"There is a plan ready and it is under execution to establish four floating platforms and three new undersea pipes with diameters of 48 inches, in order to deal with the expected increase. We will thus be able to export from the Arab Gulf -- from the oil ports in the Arab Gulf, from the Basra port, from the floating platforms and al-Amaya port -- we will reach an export capacity of 8 million barrels a day," he said.
He added: "Work on this is ongoing. The plan is for this work to finish in the second half of 2011, when we expect production to have reached a level that the Basra port currently cannot handle."
Iraq has a clutch of deals with global oil majors that it hopes will push it to third from eleventh place among the world's oil producers. A contract with Britain's BP and China's CNPC to develop the country's super-giant Rumaila field has already been finalized.
BP, CNPC and the SOC have agreed that current production from Rumaila is 1.05 million bpd, Jaafar said. The baseline output figure will be used to determine the foreign firms' future performance in boosting output, to which their level of remuneration is pegged.
Iraqi oil exports reached 1.868 million bpd in October, including exports from the country's northern fields. The bulk of Iraq's oil reserves, the world's third largest, are in the south, and are currently pumped through two offshore terminals.
Three pipelines carry oil to the Khor al-Amaya and al-Basra oil terminals, but equipment is old and decrepit after years of wars and sanctions, and the existing pipes cannot handle the pressure of a faster pumping rate.
He added, Foster Wheeler and Britain's Maritime and Underwater Security Consultants, or MUSC, were giving advice, conducting surveys, or clearing the seabed, to help SOC prepare for the pipeline and terminal projects.
He added that new oil storage and pumping facilities were being built to handle the expected increase in oil production as a result of the new oilfield development deals.
"As part of the plan that aims at tackling the expected increased production, the company of oil projects is working on establishing a new oil reservoir in al-Fao comprised of 24 tankers, a pumping system, an electricity generating system, a number of valves and a control system. The designs have been devised for this project, and contracts have been signed to purchase the raw materials needed for the tankers and for implementing the designs," Jaafar said.
"All the companies and the entire oil sector is exerting great efforts to reach the desired end, which is to have the capability -- -- the capability to export, transport and pump 8 million barrels a day from Basra by the end of the 2011," he added.
A consortium led by Exxon Mobil has clinched an initial agreement to develop Iraq's West Qurna Phase One oilfield and another group headed by ENI has an agreement to develop the Zubair field.
Both deals are awaiting cabinet approval. The Rumaila, Zubair and Qurna deals would nearly triple Iraq's oil output to about 7 million bpd from around 2.5 million bpd.
A second round of tenders for lucrative contracts for 10 largely undeveloped Iraqi oilfields is scheduled for December 11-12. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None