Page 11 - DMEA Week 35

DMEA POLICY DMEA

Details emerge about Chevron’s

potential Iraq deal

IRAQ MIDDLE East Oil & Gas (MEOG) can exclu- included a 150,000 bpd refinery as well as the
sively reveal the intentions behind Chevron’s upstream development.
The field in question framework deal with Iraq’s Ministry of Oil According to Iraq’s oil minister, Ihsan
had previously (MoO), which was announced last week. Ismaael, oil production from Thi Qar is currently
been envisioned as The US firm last week said it had agreed a 200,000 bpd, representing a substantial increase
supporting a 150,000 vague deal that would see it enter into exclusive from last year. Total 2019 output from Thi Qar
bpd refinery. negotiations for an exploration, development Province is thought to have been around 95,000
and production contract in the southern Thi bpd from a combination of the Nassiriya and
Qar Province. Subba oilfields.
A senior official in the Iraqi government told The MoO has previously spoken of inten-
MEOG that the MoO will create two teams: one tions for the field to produce above 100,000 bpd,
that will be responsible for technical studies and though the ministry clearly has far loftier ambi-
another that will be responsible for commercial tions for Thi Qar. These align with the target out-
discussions with Chevron for a mega project in lined by Ismaael last week when he said that Iraq
Thi Qar. would increase oil production capacity to 7mn
The proposal is reported to focus on the fur- bpd by 2025, while also reducing gas flaring and
ther development of the Nassiriya oilfield, which gas imports to zero.
currently has a production capacity of 90,000 Meanwhile, state-owned North Oil Co.
barrels per day (bpd) of crude from an estimated (NOC) is working to redevelop the Kirkuk fields
4.36bn barrels of recoverable reserves. in order to achieve a sustainable production pla-
The source said that the first stage of the teau of 300,000-450,000 bpd. The fields – Kirkuk,
plan was to assess the previous exploration Bai Hassan, Jambur, Khabbaz and Ajil – have
work carried out in the region by the Iraqi Oil an estimated combined production capacity of
Exploration Co. (IOEC) in order to determine nearly 500,000 bpd, though this has fluctuated
the area for development. From that point, the wildly since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990,
aim would be to proceed to expand production when sanctions were imposed on Baghdad.
from Thi Qar to 1mn bpd, and the source sug- Since then, it has suffered from sabotage and
gested that once this level is reached, efforts will infrastructure attacks during first the US inva-
resume to ramp up downstream capabilities. sion, and more recently, the ISIS insurgency.
The Nassiriyah field had previously been envi- Output from Kirkuk peaked at around 1.4mn
sioned as an integrated project that would have bpd in the late 1970s/early 1980s. ™

Week 35 03•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11