Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it has restarted production at Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield to boost output
The Anglo-Dutch energy major, in charge of operations at the southern Majnoon oilfield, said it aims to boost output to 175,000 bpd in October 2013.
A Shell spokesperson said, “We are targeting production of 175,000 bpd in the next weeks.
“The test restart of the oilfield will continue until the end of September and production of around 190,000 bpd is expected to be reached in October.”
The second-biggest Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) producer expects its output to rise by 400,000 bpd by the end of 2013.
Iraq signed a series of service contracts with major oil companies such as Shell, BP, Exxon and Total at the end of 2009 to develop its oilfields.
The development of the neighboring Rumaila, Zubair and West Qurna-1 oilfields has already added 600,000 bpd to the country's output.
Garraf oilfield in southern Iraq, developed by Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Limited (Japex), started production of 35,000 bpd earlier this month, according to company sources.
Under the terms of the service contract, Shell will try to raise production from Majnoon to 1.8mn bpd by 2017.
READ MORE...
Iraq’s Majnoon to ‘start 175,000 bpd production in October this year’
