In its latest corporate update, Gulfsands Petroleum included the following statement on its Iraqi operations:

Gulfsands signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2005 with the Ministry of Oil in Iraq for the Maysan Gas Project in Southern Iraq, following completion of a feasibility study on the project, and is negotiating details of a definitive contract for this regionally important development. The project will gather, process and transmit natural gas that is currently a waste by-product of oil production and as a result of the present practice of gas flaring, contributes to significant environmental damage in the region. Gulfsands has no reserves in Iraq.

Gulfsands has also been pre-qualified by Iraq’s Oil Ministry to participate in the Iraq’s 4th Bid Round which will offer qualified bidders the opportunity to acquire up to 12 exploration licences in southern, western and central Iraq with bids anticipated to be required by the end of May, 2012.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry announced on Wednesday that it has discovered a new oil field in the Missan [Maysan] province, and described it as the biggest achivement in 30 years.

According to the report from AKnews, the Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi [Elaibi] told a press conference:

“Iraqi Oil Company and the Southern Oil Company have been able to make a big achievement… by finding oil in al-Dima field in Missan province [south east of Baghdad bordering Iran] though the ministry did not expect the discovery of oil in the field.”

Iraqi oil experts struck oil at at depth of 2,300 meter.

The minister added:

“They are now working on estimating the size of the oil reserve in the field before pumping is started.”

(Source: AKnews)

Aswat al-Iraq reports that a number of American, Malaysian, French and Japanese companies are interested in working in southern Iraq’s Missan Oil Company.

“The Internatoinal Oil Gas Exhibition, held in Basra Province, saw visits by dozens of foreign companies to the Missan Oil Company pavilion,” Ali Abbas al-Turfy told the news agency, adding that “more the 100 companies have offered to work in the Company’s oil, excavation, supplies and other oil services.”

Missan [Maysan] Province, center of which is Amara city, 390 km to the south of Baghdad, is one of the leading oil provinces, producing over 100k barrels per day (bpd). It includes six oil-producing fields: Bazergan, Abu-Gharb, Fakka and Halfaya, as well as the Majnoun Oil Field, that is partner of the the Southern Oil Company, along with 5 discovered but unproducing fields, including the Huweiza, al-Rafi’e, East Rafidan, Dujeila and Kumait fields.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

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)

The Iraqi Oil Ministry wants to build two new refineries in the provinces of Karbala [Kerbala] and Missan [Maysan], in order to reduce the country’s dependency on foreign oil imports, according to AKnews.

The one in Karbala will produce up to 140.000 barrels of fuel per day, the one in Missan up to 150,000.

The announcement comes one day after the Oil Ministry reported that Iraq is still not able to produce enough oil and gas to meet its own demands. While Iraq produces 8 million liters of liquid gas per day, it consumes approximately 12 million liters.

The situation is even worse as far as oil is concerned: 12 million liters of refined oil are produced in Iraq every day, however another 12 million liters have to be imported from international markets.

In a move that some regards as a panic reaction, the Oil Ministry this weekend halted its programme to provide free fuel to owners of generators. The programme started in June in order to increase private energy production and cost $400 million [468 billion Iraqi dinars].

(Source: AKnews)

(Picture: Baiji refinery)

The Chairman of Southern Iraq’s Missan Energy Committee has said on Thursday that the Province’s Council had decided to sack the Director-General of Missan Oil Company from his post.

According to the report from Aswat al-Iraq, he has been accused of poor administration and failing to achieve higher oil production results during his assignment.

“Missan Province’s Council has decided in an emergency session today (Thursday) to sack the Director-General of Missan Oil Company, Engineer Ali Muarij, from his post, due to his bad administration and failure to achieve high production averages in the Province during his assignment,” Amer Nasrallah told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He said that Muarij “had violated Article 112 of the Iraqi Constitution, including necessity for coordination with the Councils of Provinces and directors of productive establishments, in order to carry out the administration of those establishments and the implementation of investments by them.”

He added that “17 out of Missan Council’s members have voted for the decision of ending the services of the said official, whilst 8 members have abstained.”

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and its partners in the southern Halfaya oilfield have awarded a $174 million contract to the China Petroleum and Engineering Corp. (CPECC) to build three crude processors, an Iraqi oil official told Reuters on Sunday.

Ali Maarij, head of Iraq’s state-run Missan Oil Company said the new plants will raise the production capacity of Halfaya field by 100,000 barrels per day.

Halfaya field currently produces around 12,000 bpd and plans to hit 20,000 bpd by the end of this year. Production of around 90,000 bpd is expected to be achieved in the first quarter of 2012, Maarij said.

(Source: Guardian)

The consortium of Chinese, Malaysian and French companies working on the Halfaya oil field, 35 km east of Amara, in Maysan [Missan] province, have completed drilling four oil wells.

Ali Altarfi, the media department of Missan Oil Company, told Aswat al-Iraq that, “the plan is to drill 300 wells in this gigantic oil field within 5 years, according to the agreement signed with the Ministry of Oil.”

The contract stipulates that production should reach 535 thousand barrels per day (bpd), which is five times higher than the local production of the field, in addition to provision of gas products to neighboring power stations.

“The reserves of this oil field are expected to reach 15 billion barrels,” Altarfi added.

The companies that won the bid to develop this field are CNPC, Total, and Petronas.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)