In July, Shell will start installing 15 production wells and pipelines in the Majnoon oilfield in southern Iraq, Vice president and country chairman Hans Nijkamp told the website of Energy Exchange.

It will also upgrade two degassing stations and build “a new central processing facility to include two new 50,000 bbl/d capacity early production systems”.

Shell has concluded a geographical survey that produced “positive results” about the southern Shatt al-Arab waterway’s ability to handle equipment needed to develop the Majnoon oilfield. “We are now able to use it as a route to transport equipment to Majnoon and minimize road transport .. We are also in the process of constructing a jetty.”

Together with Petronas of Malaysia, Shell won a 20-year service contract in 2009 to raise output from Majnoon to 1.8 million barrels a day. Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said in October that production at Majnoon had risen to 70,000 barrels a day. The oil field, which straddles the Basra and Maysan provinces, has estimated crude reserves of 12 billion barrels and 9.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.

As we reported over the weekend, Dubai-based Dodsal has won a $106m contract for a pipeline at Majnoon.

(Source: Bloomberg)

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)

China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and its partners Total of France and Petronas of Malaysia, have issued a tender for work in Iraq’s 4.1-billion-barrel Halfaya oilfield.

Reuters reports that the consortium has advertised on Monday looking for bids from companies to supply a drilling pad and to survey existing wells.

The tender closes on June 7.

(Source: Reuters)

The Russian Gasprom Oil Company has began implementing the 1st phase of southeastern Iraq’s Badra oil field in Wassit [Wasit] Province, the Province’s Media director said on Sunday, according to Aswat al-Iraq.

“Gazprom’s team charged with executing the Badra oil field, 90 km to the east of Kut, has began the first phase of implementing the project,” Majid al-Itaby told the agency.

He said the first phase of the project has covered the ending of the engineering plans and the geological survey, to extract oil at the beginning of next year.

“Iraq’s South Oil Company had signed a contract with four international oil companies — the Russian Gazprom, Turkish TPO, Korean Kogas and the Malaysian Petronas – to develop the Badra oil field for U.S.$100 millions,” Itaby said, adding that the Company would extract oil from a 170 square km area in Badra township.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

Gazprom Neft has completed the tendering process for the front end engineering design (FEED) for the Badra oil field in Iraq, with the contract being awarded to French Technip, according to Penn Energy.

The project preparation is expected to be completed by June 2011.

The tender award decision has also been taken for the road and well site construction, as well as for the construction of a permanent camp. The Iraqi ALMCO was selected as the contractor in both cases.

In January 2011, the mobilisation of manpower and equipment was completed, and geological engineering surveys and future roads laying-out were launched.

In accordance with the latest instructions of the Ministry of Oil of the Republic of Iraq, the ITT submissions for well drilling and integrated project management in terms of well construction were delivered to the state Iraqi North Oil Company (NOC) and the Ministry of Oil for approval and declaration of winners. The commencement of works is scheduled for April – May 2011.

Reuters reports that the state-run Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) said on Thursday it expects to provide about 16.3 billion yen ($198 million) of capital in 2011-2012 to Iraq’s Gharaf [Gharraf, Garraf] oilfield development project.

In return, JOGMEC said it would take a stake of less than 50 percent in Japan Petroleum Exploration’s (Japex) wholly owned subsidiary that is taking part in the project.

Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas holds 45 percent of the oilfield development and production service project, Japex 30 percent, and Iraq 25 percent.

The consortium, which expects to invest up to $8 billion, expects oil production to start in 2012 at 50,000 barrels per day, rising to 230,000 bpd of plateau output from 2016.

In a statement, JOGMEC said: “It is expected that this project will contribute to strengthen and deepen a relationship with Iraq, as well as reinforce Japan’s energy security”.

(Sources: Reuters, JOGMEC)

Oil production in Missan [Maysan] will reach 170,000 barrels per day by the end of 2011, compared to 2010’s production of 100,000 bpd, according to a director of the Missan Oil Company on Sunday.

“The 70,000 barrels increase will come from the development of  the Halfaya oil field and the drilling of new wells,” Ali Maarij told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“A Chinese company and its consortium of other companies have conducted seismological surveys, removed landmines, and set up three drilling towers in Halfaya, 35 km east of al-Amara city, in a bid to drill more wells,” he said.

The Halfaya field was awarded in Iraq’s second licensing round to CNPC (China), Petronas (Malaysia), and Total (France).

(Sources: Aswat al-Iraq, Ministry of Oil)

Royal Dutch Shell may build its own dock in Iraq’s Shatt al-Arab waterway to speed up delivery of heavy equipment to its supergiant Majnoon oilfield, according to a report from Reuters.

The head of the General Company of Iraqi Ports, Salah Kudhair, told the agency that it had given initial approval to a proposal from Shell to build a 25 metre quay to ship equipment from the Umm Qasr sea port to Majnoon through the waterway.

That would be faster, safer and much easier than transporting the materials by truck.

“Shell asked to build its own dock on the Shatt al-Arab at their own expense and we gave them an initial approval,” Kudhair said in an interview in the oil hub city of Basra.

Shell has started conducting a survey and suggested a joint management committee should run the dock.

The Shatt al-Arab, a waterway formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, empties into the Gulf below Iraq’s port city of Basra and is Iraq’s only shipping outlet.

“Shell is looking at a number of potential options to mobilize equipment later in the year, and this is an initial survey to assess the feasibility of using Shatt al-Arab,” one source said, asking not to be identified.

Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, and Malaysia’s Petronas won a contract in 2009 to develop Majnoon, one of the world’s biggest oilfields.

A second industry source said that Exxon Mobil, which is developing Iraq’s West Qurna Phase One oilfield, another supergiant, was watching Shell’s proposal for a dock in the Shatt al-Arab closely.

(Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters)