British oil major BP, along with its partner China National Petroleum Corp, plans to increase production from Iraq's Rumaila oil field by more than 100,000 barrels a day at the beginning of next year, a BP executive said Sunday, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
"Initial production will go up by 10% (at the) beginning of 2011," Michael Townshend, president of BP Iraq, told a two-day symposium held by the Iraqi oil ministry in Baghdad to discuss the co-ordination and implementation of the country's oil expansion plans.
Two oil licensing auctions last year awarded 11 deals to international oil companies that promise to add nearly 10 million barrels a day of capacity to Iraq's existing 2.5 million barrels a day by 2017.
The Rumaila field, with some 17 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, is currently producing 1.07 million barrels a day.
The BP-led consortium has pledged to almost triple production at the field to 2.85 million barrels a day in six years.
BP holds a 38% stake in the venture, while CNPC has 37% and Iraq's state-run South Oil Co. the remaining 25%. The three contractors will receive a fixed fee of $2 for each additional barrel of oil produced from Rumaila.
Rumaila also has the potential to produce 1 billion cubic feet of gas a day, Townshend said.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
(Picture: BP Rumaila)
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