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selection had been made, without naming the chosen company.
He also asserted that an agreement on the export of Kuwaiti gas to Iraq was imminent.
Both parties have repeatedly made similar claims over the past year without nalising the deal, which would see exports starting at 0.517bn cubic metres per year and rising to 2.07 bcm per year. However, the urgency for Baghdad has been increased by uS pressure to cease imports from Iran coupled with popular protests over power shortages.
Iraq is also developing the Khudr al-Maa oil block on the southern border, awarding an
upstream contract to Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum on June 3, 2018.
Meanwhile to the south, Kuwait discovered large reserves of Jurassic gas in the north of the country in the middle of last decade. A er lengthy delays over potential IOC involvement, it nally awarded three BOO contracts in 2016 to install early production systems (EPSs) at the East Raudhatain, West Raudhatain, Sabriya and umm Niqa elds.
e plants were commissioned by the uS’ Schlumberger and the local Spetco in 2018, each producing roughly 1 bcm per year of gas and 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) of light oil.™
ProJeCts & ComPanies
Eni and BP finalise deal for Oman’s Block 77
oman
ITALy’S Eni and uK-based BP have nalised the terms of a gas exploration and production-shar- ing agreement (EPSA) with the government of Oman for Block 77 in the centre of the country.
e announcement follows a heads of agree- ment (HoA) signed in January. is set out “the principles for the acquisition of exploration and production rights” for Block 77, a newly deline- ated 3,100-square km contract area lying 30km east of the Khazzan eld in Block 61.
Each company will own an initial 50% stake, with the Italian company acting as operator dur- ing the exploration phase.
BP commissioned the rst phase of a $16bn project to develop tight gas reserves at Khazzan in late 2017, producing 28.3mn cubic metres per day. It took a nal investment decision (FID) in 2018 to proceed with the second phase, Ghazeer, in order to increase output by 50%.
Earlier reports of the budding deal with the Italian rm, which surfaced in July, indi- cated that the previous operator had identi ed reserves of 57-113bn cubic metres and that esti- mates suggested total resources could be up to 283 bcm. Block 77 covers an area of 2,734 square
km in Central Oman.
Also in January, Eni reprised a tie-up with
growing state rm Oman Oil Company Explora- tion & Production (OOCEP) to acquire a block auctioned in Muscat’s most recent licensing round.
The announcement by Eni opened with news of the signature of an EPSA for Block 47, an 8,524-square km area, also known as Jebel Hammah, in the A’Dakhiliyah governorate in the north-east – o ered during a four-block bid round launched in late 2017.
At that time the ministry described the acre- age as a tight gas play, saying that gas had been found in the Natih and Shuaiba formations with- out the discoveries having been fully appraised by previous operators and that four prospects had been mapped. Exploration operations are due to start later this year.
Oman Oil Co. (OOC) subsidiary OOCEP will hold a 10% stake in the licence, and the Ital- ian operator described the pact as representing both “a further step in Eni’s strategy to rein- force its presence in the sultanate of Oman and strengthen the collaboration with OOCEP”.™
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