Gulf Keystone has announced that the production at the Shaikan field in Kurdistan Region of Iraq will remain between 36,000 and 40,000 bpd until end-2015
The announcement follows a five-week suspension of production operations at the end of Q1 2015, which was caused by adverse market conditions, according to Gulf Keystone.
As a result of the halt in operations at the start of the year, the production average for this year is expected to be between 30,000 and 34,000 bpd.
Gulf Keystone is the operator of the Shaikan field and a new daily production record of 44,600 bpd was reportedly achieved at the field on 21 June 2015 and the cumulative production from Shaikan has now surpassed 13mn barrels of oil.
Gulf Keystone CEO Jón Ferrier said, “The Shaikan field is performing well, with current production at stable rates and an average daily offtake of 38,000 bpd achieved in June.
“Taking into account the suspension of production operations earlier in the year due to external market factors, the performance allows us to exit the year at an average rate of between 30,000 and 34,000 bpd, subject to future market factors.”
The company also stated that it continues to make progress towards a regular payment cycle for its current production. Further to a payment of US$4.9mn gross received beginning of July 2015, an additional payment of US$6.7mn gross has been received recently by Gulf Keystone for crude oil exported in June 2015 to the Turkish coast.
