IRAQ | Oil & Gas Fields Drilling and Development

[BigDreamer]

This thread will contain news & updates regarding development of Iraq's massive oil and gas reserves, export news and development (eg export terminals and pipelines).

Midstream development and exports could be moved into a new thread in the long term if there is a demand.

[ardamir]

Iraq Hopes To Revive Idled Iraq-Saudi Oil Pipeline

LONDON (Dow Jones)--The Iraqi government is hoping to revive the idled Iraq-Saudi oil export pipeline, a senior Iraqi official said Monday.

"This pipeline is very important and offers potential for Iraq," Thamer al-Ghadhban, the Iraqi prime minister's top energy advisor, told an Iraqi petroleum conference being held in London.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting CountriesOrganization of the Petroleum Exporting CountriesLoading... member Iraq first started oil exports through the 1.7 million barrels per day pipeline in 1989, but the Saudis shut it off the following year after the start of the Gulf War. It has remained closed since.

The energy advisor also said that the Saudi government had confiscated the section of the pipeline inside its territory even though it was completely funded by Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule. The Saudis said that they would deduct costs of building the pipeline inside their territory from debts that Iraq owes to Saudi Arabia, he said.

Ghadhban said, however, he knew nothing about a private Saudi company offering to rehabilitate the 1,000 kilometer pipeline. "I heard about a private company interested in rebuilding it but really know nothing more," he added.

Earlier this month, an oil ministry's spokesman told reporters in Baghdad that a representative of the Saudi firm, Ali Mahir, said the offer proposed involving Japan's Mitsubishi Corp (MSBHY) and a Hungarian company identified as OTV, which took part in the construction of the original pipeline.

Ghadhban said Iraq was keen to find new export outlets to cope with the expected rise in production after signing 12 deals with foreign companies.

Independent analysts said that a decision to revive the pipeline would need to be agreed by top authorities of the two countries. Such agreement has yet to be reached, they said.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq agreed to resume diplomatic relations--which had been severed following the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. But ties have been at their lowest ebb as Riyadh opposes the Iranian influence on key Iraqi Shiite politicians.

Baghdad has signed a series of development contracts with global oil companies after three bidding rounds last year and this year in a drive to boost its crude production potential from 2.35 million barrels a day now to 12 million barrels a day in the next 10 years, reaching the levels of Saudi Arabia.

http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZW20101129000111

[ardamir]

Iraq's Oil Patch Opens the Spigot

This one is too long to post.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

[sheytanElKebir]

some good potential here.



Iraq’s oil exports will increase next year when two new offshore mooring facilities for tankers are completed and the country’s Kurdish region resumes shipments of crude, Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani said.

Shahristani also told reporters in Baghdad today that a $12.5 billion agreement between Iraq, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Mitsubishi Corp. for the capture of flared-off natural gas will not be ready this week.

Lawyers representing the companies and the government will meet tomorrow to discuss the final draft of the agreement, which still requires approval from Iraq’s Council of Ministers, he said.

While Iraq generates most of its revenue from oil sales, the government is seeking to produce gas as fuel for power plants and for export. The country awarded licenses in October in its first auction of gas concessions since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iraq has the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, excluding oil in its semi-autonomous northern Kurdish territory, and its gas reserves rank fifth in size in the Middle East, according to data from BP Plc.

The Kurdistan Regional Government told the central government that it was ready to export 150,000 barrels of oil a day in 2011 through a pipeline to Turkey, Shahristani said. Kurdistan’s oil exports will be handled by the State Oil Marketing Organization.

Repaying Expenses

Iraq’s central government may reimburse some of the expenses of companies that have signed contracts with Kurdish authorities, with ownership of those assets transferring over to the government in Baghdad, he said.

“The companies can present invoices for costs on equipment or drilled wells in Iraq, and if they are reasonable, like the ones signed by the Oil Ministry with other companies, the costs will be paid and the ownership will be transferred to Iraq,” Shahristani said.

Oil supplies from the Kurdish region of northern Iraq halted a year ago after it failed to agree with the central government about how to pay operators including DNO International ASA and Addax Petroleum Corp.

“Iraq’s oil production is rising steadily, but our export facilities are still not up to the required capacity to absorb production levels,” he said. “There are four offshore moorings under construction in southern Iraq, and when two of them start working next year, crude exports will rise.”

Doubling Capacity

Iraq plans to start work in mid-December on offshore oil facilities in the south, where export capacity is due to more than double by mid-2012, the head of the state-owned South Oil Co. said on Nov. 26. Export capacity will increase to 4.5 million barrels a day by mid-2012 from the current 1.8 million barrels a day, Director General Dhia Jaafar al-Musawi said.

The country plans to build two offshore “megapipelines” and three single-buoy moorings where tankers can load crude in the Persian Gulf. Each mooring will add some 900,000 barrels a day in offshore loading capacity. Half of the surveying and the clearing away of unexploded munitions required for this expansion has been done, al-Musawi said.

Iraq exported 58.7 million barrels, or about 1.89 million barrels a day, in October, the State Oil Marketing Organization said. The exports generated the highest revenue this year with $4.526 billion.

Pipeline to Syria

Iraq and Syria have completed technical talks about a planned pipeline for transporting Iraqi oil to Mediterranean ports, AlWatan daily reported, citing an official speaking with the Kurdistan Independent News Agency. The results of the talks were positive, and Iraqi officials will report on the discussions within three days, the Damascus-based newspaper reported, citing comments by an adviser to the Iraqi government, Salam Al-Quraishi, talking to AKNEWS, the Kurdish news agency.

The 225-kilometer (140-mile) pipeline would transport Iraqi crude across Syria to the Mediterranean Sea and have an export capacity of about 1.7 million barrels of oil a day, he said.

A pipeline with a capacity of 600,000 barrels a day already links Iraq’s northern oil fields in Kirkuk to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nayla Razzouk in Amman at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

[sheytanElKebir]

Syria and Iraq have completed technical talks about a planned pipeline for transporting Iraqi oil to Mediterranean ports, AlWatan daily reported, citing an official speaking with the Kurdistan Independent News Agency.

Iraqi officials will report on the discussions within three days, the Damascus-based newspaper reported, citing comments by an adviser to the Iraqi government, Salam Al-Quraishi, talking to AKNEWS, the Kurdish news agency. The results of the talks were positive, AlWatan quoted Al-Quraishi as telling AKNEWS.

The 225-kilometer (140-mile) pipeline would transport Iraqi crude across Syria to the Mediterranean Sea and have an export capacity of about 1.7 million barrels of oil a day, he said.

[sheytanElKebir]

Iraq’s Crude Output to Rise 17% in Early 2011, Oil Minister Says
December 19, 2010, 4:25 AM EST

By Nayla Razzouk and Kadhim Ajrash
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s oil output will rise 17 percent to 2.75 million barrels a day early next year because of investments by international companies, Oil Minister Hussain al- Shahristani said in an interview.

The country, holder of the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, now produces about 2.35 million barrels of crude a day. The minister spoke in Baghdad yesterday.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ster-says.html

[elusive]

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

Iraq’s Crude Output to Rise 17% in Early 2011, Oil Minister Says
December 19, 2010, 4:25 AM EST

By Nayla Razzouk and Kadhim Ajrash
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s oil output will rise 17 percent to 2.75 million barrels a day early next year because of investments by international companies, Oil Minister Hussain al- Shahristani said in an interview.

The country, holder of the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, now produces about 2.35 million barrels of crude a day. The minister spoke in Baghdad yesterday.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ster-says.html

fifth largest?

[sheytanElKebir]

Originally Posted by elusive

fifth largest?

depends how you calculate.

do you include shale oil or not?

without shale, its the 3rd. with shale 5th.

[BigDreamer]

our oil output was above 3 mln at one point.. we are still playing catchup.. 2.75 isn't impressive..

[sheytanElKebir]

iraq had oil output of 3.5M in 1990. In 2002 it was about 2.0M/Day. Since then its fallen to 1.4M... then risen again to 2.5M.

With the new investors in place, we are beginning to see the gradual pumping up of Iraq's production to the 6-8M/day plateau in 6 years time. So you will see this sort of "increases" announced every couple of months for the next 6 years!

the major "jumps" will happen after 2012-3 when the new export terminals in Basra are completed, and hopefully some of the export pipes to syria/saudi reopened.

[sheytanElKebir]

something in the range between comedy and tragedy...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...766572684.html

BAGHDAD—Even before rival Iraqi politicians finish haggling over how to divide cabinet posts to form a unity government here, anti-American firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is weighing in on the country's biggest economic issue: oil policy.

Mr. Sadr, whose militia waged pitched battles against American forces not long after they ousted Saddam Hussein, has banned his followers from accepting jobs with foreign oil companies working in southern Iraq, his spokesman said Sunday.

The ban raises questions about how much political opposition the oil companies may face from the new government being assembled by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Representatives of rival political factions taking part in forming a unity government were continuing negotiations as of late Sunday night. Mr. al-Maliki had promised to announce at least a partial cabinet by Monday.

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Reuters
Moqtada al-Sadr

Salah al-Obeidi, a Sadr spokesman, said the ban—issued Thursday on Mr. Sadr's website as a religious edict called a fatwa—could be lifted after verifying the "legitimacy" of a company's operations. The fatwa came in the form of a response to a question from a follower, asking if it was permissible to accept work from a private, British oil company offering jobs in the southern province of Missan.

Mr. Sadr responds: "In the name of the Almighty, presently not, this is prohibited."

It isn't clear whether any specific company was being singled out by the fatwa. Asim Jihad, spokesman for the Ministry of Oil declined to comment on the move. "The ministry does not get involved in the fatwas of clerics, and tries to stay away from these matters," he said.

Last year, Prime Minister al-Maliki's previous government forced through two oil auctions, welcoming a handful of foreign companies to rehabilitate some of Iraq's biggest oil fields. Political opposition to the contracts has been muted.

A senior parliamentary leader from Mr. Sadr's movement said the group is seeking nine portfolios in Mr. Maliki's 41-member cabinet, including deputy prime minister. It isn't clear whether the timing of the fatwa was meant to affect the intense jockeying for cabinet posts.

Dozens of international oil-services contractors, large and small, have flooded Iraq's oil patch in recent months.

Missan is home to the prized Halfaya oil field. A consortium consisting of China National Petroleum Corp., Total SA and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd won the right to develop the field in the second round of auctions at the end of last year.

Ali al-Turfi, spokesman for the government-owned Missan Oil Co., which oversees oil activities in the province, said he was disappointed in learning of the fatwa. "I can't interfere in fatwas, but this would be a loss for the Iraqi citizen," he said, adding that foreign firms could bring in their own labor.

Bahaa al-Araji, a member of parliament from the Sadrist movement, said the group plans to ask for an independent audit of the government's contracts with foreign oil companies. Mr. Sadr's spokesman Mr. Obeidi said: "We believe these licenses must be re-examined."

[kurd123]

Moqtada al-Sadr shows he does not care about his 'followers' at all, if his 'followers' don't accept the jobs someone else will and they will just lose out.. I hope people wake up and see what this guy really is..

Not to go off topic but this guy wants to ban bars and clubs in Baghdad too :S

[sheytanElKebir]

kurd123... you see the next logical step is that when his followers are unemployed, and their neighbours take the above jobs, they become more embittered... thus the next logical "fatwa" by muqtada... kill the "traitors" who work for the foreign oil companies.

I feel so sorry for the man who asked muqtada the above question. I can imagine him a simple person with a family in poverty stricken long oppressed Amarah, with the opportunity of a lifetime to have a good career with an international oil company (which will be there for at least 25 years)... he could have taken the job, brought his family up in a new house, had a car, send his kids to baghdad to university.

instead he will live in squalor due to the above spaz terrorist scumbag.

[kurd123]

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

kurd123... you see the next logical step is that when his followers are unemployed, and their neighbours take the above jobs, they become more embittered... thus the next logical "fatwa" by muqtada... kill the "traitors" who work for the foreign oil companies.

I feel so sorry for the man who asked muqtada the above question. I can imagine him a simple person with a family in poverty stricken long oppressed Amarah, with the opportunity of a lifetime to have a good career with an international oil company (which will be there for at least 25 years)... he could have taken the job, brought his family up in a new house, had a car, send his kids to baghdad to university.

instead he will live in squalor due to the above spaz terrorist scumbag.

:

I seriously dislike that muqtada... I know a lot of people call the shia politicians Iranian puppets, but in my opinion only muqtada is an Iranian puppet, this guy is trieng to cause problems, I hope people don't listen to him, but then again if he managed to create a militia I guess this will go his way aswell. I see your point is valid his going to kill two birds with one stone.. ruin two families in one go... I usually don't comment on non kurdish politicians because I don't want to seem biased, but that guy is a d**k

[sheytanElKebir]

Iraq's parliament Tuesday approved Abdul Kareem Luaiby, a long-serving engineer in various Iraqi oil installations, to lead the powerful Oil Ministry, parliament's speaker Osama al-Nujaifi said.

Luaiby, who served as deputy oil minister for the last two years, replaced Hussein Shahristani, a nuclear scientist by training, who Tuesday was also approved by lawmakers for a new job, with more power, as deputy prime minister for energy. Shahristani was also approved by lawmakers as acting electricity minister until a new minister is named, the speaker said.

Shahristani, a Shiite who is backed by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's coalition, and who engineered Iraq's dozens of mega deals with international oil companies, is expected to maintain a strong influence on the ministry.

Luaiby, 51, has a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from Baghdad University. He was the oil ministry's inspector general between 2007 and 2008.

In 2008 he was appointed senior deputy oil minister for extraction. Before he was inspector general, he was the deputy director-general at the ministry's technical department. He also served in a number of the ministry's affiliated companies such as the Dour refinery near the capital Baghdad.

Luaiby maintains good relations with international oil companies. He helped outgoing oil minister Shahristani execute about a dozen recent deals with international companies aimed at increasing Iraq's oil production from the current 2.4 million barrels a day to at least 7 million barrels a day in 2017.

The new oil minister's appointment is seen as a sign of continuity for international firms that signed deals to develop Iraqi oil fields, which are among the world's largest but suffer from lack of investment, war and sanctions.

"This is a good move, if the new minister (Luaiby) is under the supervision of Shahristani," said Ehsan Ul-Haq, senior energy market consultant at the London-based KBC Energy Economics. "Shahristani's supervision means that the same Iraqi oil policies would continue."

Luaiby later confirmed he would pursue the same policy of his predecessor. "There won't be any change in the oil ministry's posts," he told reporters in his first briefing in Baghdad. The minister would also help international companies to execute the works given to them to develop Iraqi oil fields.

In his cabinet's working program, Maliki also urged parliamentarians to enact the long-awaited hydrocarbon law in order to reassure international oil companies that signed huge oil deals with Iraq.

The law was initiated by the outgoing government more than two years ago but it never moved past being debated.

[sheytanElKebir]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...m-barrels.html

oil output up to 2.7M barrels/day

[Yousifovic]

thats really good inshallah theyll reach 5M within less than 2 years !

[sheytanElKebir]

Iraq and jordan agree to build a pipeline to sell oil to Jordan. (at the moment, jordan receives Iraqi oil by truck).

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...pipelines.html

However let us hope that Iraq charges Jordan market prices this time rather than the 75% discount they enjoyed for many decades (whilst treating Iraqis in Jordan like dirt).

[sheytanElKebir]

the scramble to meet Iraq's oil production deadlines continue. with more desperate efforts by the likes of shell! I like it.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc will build a dock in Iraq’s southern Shatt al-Arab waterway to handle equipment needed to develop the Majnoon oilfield, the head of the country’s state-run ports company said.

The ports company and South Oil Co. signed an agreement to allow Shell to build the dock at its own expenses, Salah Khudair, director general of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, said in an e-mailed statement.

“The dock will facilitate the shipment of energy-related equipment for the international companies that are developing the oilfields, including Majnoon,” he said.

Iraq, home to the world’s fifth-biggest oil reserves, wants foreign funding and expertise to help it boost energy exports and help an economy stunted by years of conflict and sanctions. The government, which gets most of its revenue from oil, plans to build offshore mooring facilities in the south to more than double export capacity to 4.5 million barrels a day by mid-2012.

Together with Petroliam Nasional Bhd of Malaysia, Shell won a 20-year service contract in 2009 to raise output from Majnoon to 1.8 million barrels a day. Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said Oct. 12 that production from Majnoon had risen to 70,000 barrels a day.

As well as being the lead operator, Shell holds a 45 percent stake, leaving Petronas with 30 percent and the Iraqi state with a 25 percent interest. Majnoon, which straddles the Basra and Maysan provinces, has estimated crude reserves of about 12 billion barrels and 9.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.

[BigDreamer]

Originally Posted by sheytanElKebir

Iraq and jordan agree to build a pipeline to sell oil to Jordan. (at the moment, jordan receives Iraqi oil by truck).

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...pipelines.html

However let us hope that Iraq charges Jordan market prices this time rather than the 75% discount they enjoyed for many decades (whilst treating Iraqis in Jordan like dirt).

i hope that iraq can export oil throgh Aqaba. i'm not sure if this pipeline will reach Aqaba though.. it doesn't sound like it