Russian-Norwegian consortium to develop huge Iraqi oil field

Sat, 12 Dec 2009

Baghdad - A consortium led by Russian energy giant Lukoil and Norway's Statoil on Saturday won the rights to develop Iraq's massive West Qurna-Phase II oil field, the Oil Ministry confirmed. The field, with some 12.9 billion barrels of proven reserves, was the most important field still up for grabs on the final day of the second round of bidding in an auction that began Friday.

The Russian-Norwegian consortium said it would boost the field's production to 1.8 million barrels of oil per day (bpd).

Of the 10 oil and gas fields opened to foreign investment in the latest round of bidding, only the Majnoon, with 12.8 billion barrels of proven reserves, was as large.

A consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas energy companies on Friday won rights to develop that field, promising to boost production from 46,000 bpd to 1.8 million bpd, in exchange for 1.39 dollars to the barrel.

Petronas was also part of a consortium led by China's CNPC that on Friday won the rights to develop the Halfaya oil field, which has proven reserves of 4.1 billion barrels.

CNPC, which has a 50-per-cent stake in the consortium, with Petronas and France's Total each holding 25-per cent, plan to raise Halfaya's production to 535,000 bpd, from the 3,000 bpd it currently produces.

The consortium requested 1.40 dollars per barrel for the investment.

Shell and US giant ExxonMobil in November signed a deal to develop the West Qurna-Phase I field.

The auction is taking place in the shadow of a series of bombings that on Tuesday killed as many as 127 people and injured more than 500 in central Baghdad.

Some of the fields still on offer, such as the Nijm field in northern Iraq's conflict-riven Nineveh province, or the East Baghdad field, whose 8.1 billion barrels of oil lie almost exactly beneath the Shiite slum of Sadr City, are in areas with tenuous security.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/298986,russian-norwegian-consortium-to-develop-huge-iraqi-oil-field.html.