North Oil begins preparing Kirkuk fields to hand them over to BP
A responsible source in the North Oil Company reported on Friday that it has begun preparing oil wells in Kirkuk Governorate and determining production levels in preparation for handing them over to the British company ” BP ” for development.
The source told Shafaq News Agency, “The North Oil Company has started developing a work plan to achieve the highest possible production from the Kirkuk, Bai Hassan, Jambur, and Khabbaz fields, before handing them over to the British company ( BP ), which was contracted to develop these fields.”
He added, “The Fields Authority was directed to implement the drilling and reclamation plan during the current year, and to conduct activities to activate wells without a tower, and to expedite the provision of yards in coordination with the Projects Authority, with the completion period for each yard set at three weeks.”
The source added, “The company is working on extending the pipes and completing their equipment within the specified time period to connect the Bai Hassan wells 198 and 199, with implementation to take place within one month.”
He explained that “the company is working on connecting the valves of five wells in the Khabbaz oil field, completing the repair of damaged pipes in the Shuraw/Baba Dome station, and stabilizing production rates for the wells northwest of Avana, according to the expected plans for the Kirkuk oil field, which will contribute to raising the efficiency of the production process.”
He pointed out that “the company will complete all the requirements of the British company within three weeks to a month, and a meeting will be held with the company’s representatives in the coming days for the purpose of completing and implementing what was signed, and then following up on the program that the British BP will implement to increase the production of the North Oil Company.”
In this context, economic expert Ali Khalil confirmed to Shafaq News Agency, “The contract of the British company ( BP ) that was signed by the Iraqi government through the Ministry of Oil must oblige the British company to carry out its work in an integrated manner and for its work to be tangible through an increase in production and the results to be within a specific period.”
He pointed out that “the British company had a previous contract in 2013 with the North Oil Company and ended the contract in January 2020 for $100 million, but it left work with the North Oil Company.”
Khalil explained that “the previous contract included 3D seismic studies of the field’s reservoir to build on the 2D data that was already available, as it is estimated that the Kirkuk field contains about nine billion barrels of recoverable oil.”
On August 1, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani sponsored the signing ceremony of a comprehensive oil memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Oil and the British Petroleum Company ( BP ) to develop Kirkuk oil and gas production fields.
On the Iraqi side, the agreement was signed by Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil Hayan Abdul-Ghani, while on the BP side, the agreement was signed by the company ’s CEO Murray Auchincloss.
The memorandum includes the rehabilitation and development of the four fields of the North Oil Company in Kirkuk, namely the Kirkuk field with its two domes (Baba and Avana), the Bai Hassan field, the Jambur field, and the Khabbaz field, as well as the possibility of agreeing on other fields or exploration areas by agreement of both parties, in light of the government’s efforts to optimally invest in promising opportunities in the energy sector, with the aim of increasing and enhancing oil production and gas and solar energy investments in this region.
Shafaq.com