Iraq Achieves Oil Production of 2.5 million b/d: Minister

Platts, December 22, 2010
Iraq's newly appointed oil minister, Abdul Karim al-Luaibi, said Wednesday that oil output had risen to an average 2.5 million b/d from just under 2.4 million as a result of a production increase from the giant Zubair and Rumaila oilfields being developed by foreign consortia in joint ventures with state-run Iraqi oil companies. ...

BP and China's CNPC are developing the super giant Rumaila oil field, Iraq's biggest producing field, in partnership with the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). BP and CNPC offered to raise production from Rumaila in southern Iraq to a plateau of 2.85 million b/d from 1 million b/d within seven years. At plateau production, Rumaila would be the world's second largest oil field after Saudi Arabia's Ghawar.

A consortium of Eni, Kogas [i.e. Korea Gas Corp.] and Occidental are developing Zubair, ...

Zubair was among ... oil fields awarded by Iraq's oil ministry at two separate auctions in 2009 with the aim of raising the country's oil production capacity to over 12 million b/d from around 2.5 million b/d currently.

OPEC member Iraq in October raised its oil reserves estimate from 115 billion barrels to 143 billion barrels, mostly due to increases in reserves for the West Qurna and Zubair fields. [See also my concluding remarks in this blog, here - D.R.]

Luaibi said the oil ministry would now focus on improving energy infrastructure to absorb the additional crude oil with a particular emphasis on upgrading export facilities in the south to allow for an expansion of export capacity to 4.5 million b/d in line with anticipated production increases. Current exports are running at just over 1.9 million b/d. ...

Luaibi, who has led negotiations with the Kurdistan Regional Government to try to resolve an impasse over the resumption of oil exports from the semi-autonomous province, also said in his statement that dialog "with our Kurdish brothers will continue in order to reach a resolution that is in the general interest."

(Iraq's parliament approved deputy oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi as oil minister after confirming previous Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani as the new deputy prime minister for energy. - D.R.)