Posted on 19 October 2011.
ExxonMobil, BP and Eni plan to spend around $100 billion to upgrade their three oilfields in southern Iraq, Thamer Ghadhban, top energy adviser to the Iraqi Prime Minister said on Wednesday.
According to the report from the Wall Street Jounal, some $50 billion would be spent to upgrade Exxon’s supergiant West Qurna Phase 1 oilfield, with the remaining $50 billion being spent by BP and Eni to upgrade the Rumaila and Zubair oil fields respectively.
“The bulk (of the finance) is for West Qurna 1 because the Rumaila and Zubair fields were well advanced in terms of development, such as number of wells, oil field facilities, other infrastructure, while West Qurna phase 1 needs more,” he told reporters at the Iraq Mega Projects conference in Istanbul.
The three fields are now pumping around 2 million barrels a day, which is the bulk of Iraq’s total oil output of 2.9 million barrels a day.
A BP spokesman said it was too early to forecast the exact size of the group’s investment in Rumaila.
“We’re working with our partners and the Iraqi government on a detailed field development plan. Obviously, our plan is to invest enough to reach the production targets agreed in our contract,” said the spokesman.
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/1 ... nvestment/
