Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 48

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Gazprom Neft increasing

Kurdistan output

RUSSIA RUSSIAN firm Gazprom Neft said last week that options in the region.”
it will soon increase its production in the Kurd- Total cumulative production at Sarqala has
The Sarqala field in istan Region of northern Iraq, with the semi-au- reached 32mn barrels. First oil was reached in
Iraqi Kurdistan has tonomous area remaining a key strategic focus. 2011, with commercial flows beginning in 2015,
yielded 32mn barrels In a statement on November 25, Gazprom following the commissioning of the Sarqala-1
of oil since production Neft’s deputy CEO for E&P, Vadim Yakovlev, well and an initially slow ramp-up now modestly
started in 2011. said that the further well at the Sarqala oilfield gathering pace. A second well was brought on
would be completed in the first half of 2021, ena- stream in 2018, raising output from 11,000 bpd
bling production to be expanded from the cur- to 25,000 bpd, and in April 2019 a third well
rent 24,000 barrels per day to 32,000 bpd. entered production.
“Despite the [coronavirus] COVID-19-re- In December last year, the company said
lated restrictions, we continued implementa- that cumulative output from the asset in the
tion of our projects in the region in 2020. The south-eastern Garmian licence had reached
fourth well will be commissioned at the Sarqala 23mn barrels.
field that will allow boosting and supporting the It added that “surface facilities and infrastruc-
production level,” Yakolev said. ture have been significantly expanded in the
Sarqala is located in Kurdistan’s Garmian course of developing this field”; meanwhile, the
block in which Gazprom Neft holds an operated “pipeline processing system has been updated,
40% working interest alongside Canada-based and the production-process automated control
WesternZagros Resources (also 40%) and the system modernised.”
Kurdistan Regional Government (20%, carried). Last week’s statement came as Russian For-
The Russian firm also holds an 80% share of the eign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Iraqi
Shakal block, again carrying Erbil’s 20% stake. counterpart Fuad Hussein. After the meeting,
Yakolev added: “Today, after having created Lavrov said: “Our largest energy companies
the production base, [having] acquired a unique work in Iraq together with their partners. These
experience and getting an understanding of geo- are Lukoil, Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Bashneft.
logical peculiarities of the territory, we remain These four [companies] have invested more than
interested in exploration of new development $13bn in the Iraqi economy.” ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 02•December•2020