Iraq
Huge investments to develop the South fields
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Italian energy company ENI, operator of one of the biggest oil fields in Iraq, said it was interested in more operations there after talks with Baghdad leaders.
ENI's Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni met in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss development of Al Zubair oil field, one of the largest in the country.
Redevelopment of Zubair will come through a $20 billion investment throughout the life of the 20-year contract Eni said last year after winning the rights to explore the field.
Eni said production at Zubair would reach 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day at full capacity. Production at the field last year increased from 183,000 barrels of oil per day to more than 201,000 bpd, which the company said was the minimum needed to trigger cost recovery.
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Iraqi Prime Minister |
Noori al Maliki - Iraqi Prime Minister has expressed his satisfaction with the activities carried out by Eni in Iraq and called for a greater presence of the company in the country. Scaroni added his company was interested in participating in an upcoming bidding round for development of the Nassiriya field. Iraq estimates the 12 blocks up for auction in January could raise reserve estimates by 10 million barrels of oil and 29 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Kurdistan exports tumble
The Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Karim Luaibi declared lately that the government of Kurdistan has stopped exporting crude oil from its territories as of September 11, 2011 without giving reasons. He added that "this is a great loss for the Iraqi economy, and the Kurds and Iraqis in general".
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Chairman of the State Oil Marketing Organization |
An official at Iraq’s North Oil Co. confirmed the suspension of crude exports from the Kurdish region to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey.
Falah al-Amri, Chairman of the State Oil Marketing Organization, said that Iraq has exported a total of 2.19 million barrels of crude a day in August.
The crude oil production in Kurdistan has fallen recently from 150 to approximately 55 thousand barrels per day given the unsolved differences between Baghdad and Erbil regarding the oil contracts of Kurdistan with foreign companies.
Iraq, the third-biggest producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia and Iran, is struggling to boost oil exports, its main source of revenue for rebuilding an economy crippled by years of conflict and sanctions.
Iraqi Cabinet to approve mega gas deal for Shell
The Iraqi cabinet lately approved a deal of $17.2 billon for Shell to produce and process gas from three giant southern oil fields--Rumaila, West Qurna phase 1, and Zubair in the southern governorate of Basra, which can all produce 2 billion cubic feet a day.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry initialed the Iraq South Gas agreements last July with Shell and Japan's Mitsubishi.
The 25-year venture calls for creating "Basra Gas Company" with 51% stake for the government, 44% for shell, and 5% for Mitsubishi. The company will invest about $13 billion on infrastructure and $4.4 billion to build the liquefied natural gas facility. The project also includes the establishment of LNG terminal which could handle 600 million cubic feet daily of exports.
According to the agreement, the company must give the priority to meet local gas consumption and the local power plants. Iraq would make nearly $100 billion from the venture from gas substitution to oil currently used to fuel Iraq's power stations. In addition, Iraq can gain from Shell and Mitsubishi profits tax and from import and export taxes.
Iraq has proved natural gas reserves of about 113 trillion cubic feet, with which it ranked 10th largest in the world. However, it produces only about 1 billion cubic feet daily, of which about 700 million cubic feet are being flared because of the shortage of gas utilities.