Honeywell has said it currently has $360m worth of contracts in Iraq, Dow Jones has reported.

The US-based engineering firm has a contract with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to develop process control systems and fire and gas detection systems at the Ahdab oil field, Tarek Nahl, the company’s Middle East sales manager, told the news service.

Honeywell is also upgrading a control and process system at the 140,000 barrels-a-day Baiji refinery, 200km north of Baghdad, Nahl said.

It also has contracts with the country’s state South Oil Co to develop process and control and fire and gas detection systems at the Subba/Luhais oil field in southern Iraq, and is developing a process control system for Basra’s crude oil export pipeline project currently under construction.

(Source: Dow Jones, AME Info)

The Missan Oil Company expects to increase output by 20 percent to 120,000 barrels a day by the end of this year

The company’s Director General Ali Muarej told Boomberg that ten wells will be made operational at the Halfaya field south of Baghdad in the next two months to raise production.

Total, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and Petronas are developing Halfaya.

CNPC has a 50 percent share in the project, with Total and Petronas each owning 25 percent.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Output at Iraq’s Halfaya oilfield will rise to 70,000 barrels a day in 2012 with the drilling of 48 wells, As Sabah newspaper said on Tuesday.

Bloomberg reports that two projects valued at a total of $187 million will be built next year at the oilfield. The projects include a crude oil processing facility with a capacity of 100,000 barrels a day, and a pumping station to increase export capacity.

Total, CNPC and Petronas are developing Halfaya after signing a contract last year. CNPC has a 50 percent share in the project with Total and Petronas owning 25 percent each.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Reuters reported on Sunday that output at Iraq’s Rumaila South oilfield has been restored to 460,000 barrels per day after pipeline bombings last week.

The report said two production stations were restarted on Sunday morning to start pumping 460,000 bpd to Zubair storage, and two more stations would be operating by the afternoon.

Output from Rumaila South is expected to increase gradually to hit its normal production level of around 650,000 bpd on Monday. Rumaila North has a normal production of around 540,000 bpd. Tge fields are being developed by BP and CNPC.

Exports from Basra were at around 2 million bpd on Sunday compared with 1.58 million bpd on Saturday, a Basra shipping source told Reuters.

The agency also reports that six people were killed in a botched controlled explosion of war materials and mines at Rumaila South oilfield.

(Source: Reuters)

Iraq’s Oil Ministry has formally approved a proposal to raise production at the al-Ahdab oil field to 200,000 bpd.

The Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) that started exploring the field in June.

It is considered to be CNPC’s largest oil investment in the Middle East and the first oil field to be newly explored in Iraq for 20 years, according to AKnews.

CNPC signed contracts for Ahdab in 2008 after previous agreements with the regime of Saddam Hussein in 1996 were put on hold by UN sanctions. The state-owned company invests $3 billion USD (3.5 trillion IQD) for this 23-year contract.

China, desperately in need of energy for its growing economy, makes only 1% profit with its investment in Ahdab, according to Chinese officials. However, a Chinese oil executive told the New York Times that Ahdab was a good way to “get a foot in the door” of the Iraqi oil industry.

(Source: AKnews)

Reuters reports that a fire has broken out at a state-run gas compression unit at Iraq’s Rumaila oilfield on Tuesday, killing one person and hitting oil production.

“We have stopped exporting gas that would have been exported into this compressor and this will have an impact on our production from Rumaila,” BP spokesman David Nicholas said in London, without offering figures for the cut in oil output.

The incident occurred after excess pressure in one of the storage units and high temperatures caused a gas leak, sources at Iraq’s South Oil Company said. A chief oil engineer at the South Oil Company said the fire erupted while workers were carrying out maintenance work at the gas compression facility.

“As a result of the gas compression unit fire, we have nine workers seriously wounded. Some of them are suffering from severe burns,” an oil police source said. “Three others are still missing … and one worker was killed.”

Oil major BP, which is developing Rumaila along with CNPC, said the gas compression facility supplied the city of Basra with fuel and was not part of its operations at the oilfield.

“It was an explosion at the South Gas Company … which is next door to our facilities but they are not run by Rumaila at all,” Michael Townshend, president of BP-Iraq, told Reuters. “We are lending all the assistance we can and our priority is to assist all those injured at the moment.”

Another BP spokesman said: “As a precautionary measure Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO) has shut in some oil production to stop supplies of associated gas to the affected Southern Gas Company gas compression plant. No further details for the time being.”

“As a result of the fire, BP should now halt production at some oil wells until making sure the gas pipeline is totally closed and no gas leakage still exists,” an SOC engineer said. “Then they can resume operations at their degassing station by flaring the gas that was being supplied to the Iraqi gas compressor before the fire.”

(Sources: Reuters, Iraq Oil Report)

(Picture: A de-gassing station at Rumaila)

Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, and China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (CPECC), the engineering and construction subsidiary of China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), have established a new strategic joint venture, China Petroleum Petrofac Engineering Services (CPPES). Based in Sharjah, UAE, the joint venture will provide project management and engineering services for selected oil & gas projects, focusing on projects for Chinese oil & gas companies.

Petrofac and CPECC have a long-standing relationship and track record of cooperation, most recently being jointly awarded an inspection, maintenance and repair contract for the Rumaila oil field in Southern Iraq. The strengthened relationship was recognised at an official ceremony that took place at CPECC’s offices in Beijing on 19 September.

The joint venture which is 51% owned by CPECC and 49% owned by Petrofac, following formal signing and exchanging of contracts, will be established under the leadership of personnel from both companies.

Maroun Semaan, group chief operating officer, Petrofac, commented:

“Cementing our association with CPECC represents a significant milestone for Petrofac. Our relationship with CPECC extends over the last seven years and I am delighted it has been strengthened with the creation of this joint venture. Together, we have considerable resources and world-class engineering and construction expertise and our collaboration should enable us to capitalise on the significant opportunities in China and internationally.“

Mr Hou Haojie, President, CPECC, commented:

“It is a delight that CPECC and Petrofac have come together to combine and harness their respective talents in order to deepen the portfolio in our local and international markets.“

The governor of Iraq’s Wasit [Wassit] province, Mahdy al-Zubaidy, has announced that production at the al-Ahdab oilfield has reached 60,000 barrels per day (bpd).

According to a report from Bloomberg, he went on to say that the field’s output capacity will increase to 120,000 bpd by the end of the year, while Oil Minister Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi [Elaibi] told reporters to expect 200,000 bpd by the middle of next year.

In November 2008, the state-run China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) won a $3.5 billion contract to develop al-Ahdab. Iraqi officials estimate Al-Ahdab contains about 1 billion barrels of oil.

(Source: Bloomberg)