A Chinese company takes over the tasks of developing the West Qurna field instead of the American Ex

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A Chinese company takes over the tasks of developing the West Qurna field instead of the American ExxonMobil

[size=45]Translated by: Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]The American “Oil Price” website revealed that the Chinese company PetroGina took over the tasks of developing the West Qurna 1 field after the American company Exxon Mobil left the site, with a goal for the first phase of the project to reach a production rate of 700 thousand barrels per day, and the Ministry of Oil’s future goal is to reach a production rate of 1.6 million barrels. per day in the field, which contains proven reserves estimated at more than 20 billion barrels.[/size]
[size=45]The report, prepared by international energy expert Simon Watkins, states that the ceremony of handing over the tasks of managing and operating one of the largest oil fields in the world, West Qurna 1, from the American company ExxonMobil to the Chinese company PetroGina took place last week.[/size]
[size=45]The expert, Watkins, points out that the Chinese company had practically assumed control of the giant field unofficially since the end of June 2018, when ExxonMobil began its discussions with the Iraqi government about its intention to leave as it is the first partner in the project to extend seawater pumping pipelines into the field.[/size]
[size=45]The West Qurna 1 field is located 65 km south of the city of Basra and contains an important part of the giant field's total reserves, which are estimated at 43 billion barrels.[/size]
[size=45]It was originally believed that the West Qurna 1 field contained oil reserves of approximately 9 billion barrels of total reserves, but at the beginning of 2021, the Ministry of Oil modified the amount of the estimated reserve for West Qurna 1 and raised it to an average of 20 billion barrels. Since the field includes this huge oil reserve, the Ministry doubled the production ceiling set for the first phase of the development project from 500 thousand barrels per day to 700 thousand barrels per day. The field's current production rate is 550 thousand barrels per day. The Ministry stated at the time that although the goal set at the long-term level was to reach a production rate of 2.825 million barrels during the next decade (the first few years after 2030), negotiations were made with the oil companies contributing to the terms of the contract at that time to reduce the set goal to 1.6 million barrels per day, and the target rate may be raised again during the next five years.[/size]
[size=45]The international expert, Watkins, indicated in his report that the main companies that were participating in these discussions were PetroGina, which later completed the purchase of 32.7% of the shares of the West Qurna 1 field, and Exxon Mobil, which also owns 32.7% of the value of the shares. He stressed that PetroGina sought almost immediately to establish itself as a dominant force in the site.[/size]
[size=45]The Chinese Petroleum Engineering and Construction Company had signed a contract in Iraq in November 2019 worth $121 million to develop facilities for collecting and manufacturing associated gas in fields, including the giant Majnoon field, which was also undertaken by the Chinese Heilong Oil Service Company.[/size]
[size=45]The report indicates that Iraq was aiming, by signing these development oil contracts, to raise its oil production rates from 4 to 4.5 million barrels per day to reach 7 million barrels per day and then to 9 million barrels per day to reach 12 million barrels per day in the future. This will pave the way for Iraq is expected to be the second largest oil producer in the world after the United States, ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.[/size]
[size=45]The seawater pumping pipeline project, which was undertaken by ExxonMobil in the West Qurna 1 field, and which the Chinese company PetroGina will now be responsible for implementing, consists of withdrawing and treating water from the Arabian Gulf basin and pumping it through extended pipes to the oil production fields in order to maintain the pressure process inside the oil well. To facilitate the process of extracting crude oil.[/size]
[size=45]The first phase of the project includes pumping 6 million barrels of water per day to at least five oil wells in Basra and another in Maysan Governorate, and then expanding the project to include other fields.[/size]
[size=45]However, expert Watkins says that both the giant Kirkuk and Rumaila fields, whose production constitutes 80% of the total oil production in Iraq, also require the implementation of a large water pumping project, pointing to the needs of the large southern oil fields for projects to extend water pumping pipelines in an area where Water imports are somewhat scarce.[/size]
[size=45]ExxonMobil had begun developing initial plans for a project to extend seawater pumping pipelines to oil fields in the year 2010, when Iraq was seeking at the time to double oil production rates to reach 12 million barrels per day by the year 2018, but then the company was removed in 2012 after... The negotiations failed and were replaced by the South Oil Company. The company resumed negotiations again in 2015, but they did not succeed either. According to expert Watkins, the American company began to think about leaving the West Qurna 1 field from that time.[/size]
[size=45]About: Oil Price[/size]


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