PHOTO
Oil pump on a sunset background. World Oil Industry. Image used for illustrative purpose. Image courtesy: Getty Images/ Anton Petrus
Iraqi oilfields to be developed by British Petroleum (BP) under a contract signed last week contain proven crude reserves of around five billion barrels, an Iraqi oil official says.
Baghdad signed the deal with BP after the Company submitted an updated study on the fields in the Northern Kirkuk province, said Amer Khalil, Director General of the state-owned North Oil Company (NOC).
Khalil told the official Iraqi news agency at the weekend that BP completed an initial study on the four fields years ago but an agreement was delayed due to attacks by the Daesh militants during 2014-2017.
“BP has submitted to the Iraqi oil Ministry an updated study on the development of the four oilfields in Kirkuk…this prompted the cabinet to endorse the signing of a contract with the Company…these fields contain an estimated five billion barrels of extractable oil deposits,” he said.
The Oil Ministry said last week the contract with BP includes increasing oil production to a record high of 420,000 barrels per day, boosting gas output to 400 million cubic feet per day and the construction of a 400-MW power plant.
At that oil production level, the reserves of those fields can last nearly 32 years and they account for nearly 3.5 percent of Iraq’s total proven oil deposits of 145 billion barrels.
The fields are currently operated Kirkuk-based NOC and include the Baba and Avanah domes of the Kirkuk oil field, along with the Bai Hassan, Jambur and Khabbaz fields.
The project coincides with plans by OPEC member Iraq to increase its sustainable oil production capacity by nearly two million bpd to more than six million bpd in 2029.
Iraq, which also controls nearly 3.5 trillion cubic metres of gas deposits, has awarded contracts to several foreign companies, mostly from China, over the past months for the development of its crude and gas resources.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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