Loking at injecting seawater into its southern oilfield deposits to boost production – with Exxon and PetroChina
From Maritime Herald
Increasing the export of oil is the goal of Iraq.
The second largest producer of OPEC is intensifying its efforts to expand the capacity to pump and export oil. For this, it has plans that include the injection of seawater into crude deposits. In addition to the construction of export facilities on an artificial island in Persia Gulf.
Iraq is seeking offers from six companies for a $ 4 billion project to inject seawater into its southern oil fields. So as to evict more crude from the deposits. This was stated by Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, general director of the state company Basra Oil Co. The country has already received offers from five companies interested in building a processing facility to double production in the Majnoon field to 450,000 bpd.
Proposals for the export of oil, storage facility
Iraq is also studying a proposal with a Dutch company to build a storage facility of 10 MMbbl. In addition to an oil export terminal with a capacity of 2 MMbpd, all on an artificial island off the coast of the Gulf.
“Let’s say we have bad weather.” The oil tankers will be taken to a safe area, and when the bad weather ends, we will have many ships and not all of them will be able to come to load since the waiting area will be occupied, “he said.” But if we have more than one terminal, once the bad weather ends, everyone can get to load crude.”
Iraq has tried to boost oil exports from its southern region, which includes giant fields, such as Majnoon and Rumaila. As a way to compensate for a loss in production in the north. Right there where there is a dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region that has paralyzed gas pipeline exports through Turkey. Iraq pumped 4.43 MMbpd in February, second only to Saudi Arabia in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The production capacity will be 5 MMbpd by the end of next year, even if it agrees to limit production under a global oil reduction agreement.
Oil producers pump water to the oil fields to improve oil recovery. The initial offers for the Iraqi seawater injection project are due on April 15, and the government hopes to award the work before June, said Abdul Jabbar. Iraq is talking to ExxonMobil Corp. and PetroChina Co. about aspects of the project, Abdul Mahdy Al-Ameedi, general director of the Ministry of Petroleum for upstream oil contracts, said last month in Berlin.
Offshore oil export
The country plans to increase production at the southern deposit of West Qurna-1 to 480,000 bpd. From here to December from 450,000 bpd. This was stated by Hassan Mohammed Hassan, head of the joint management committee of the field. Production in the field will jump to 800,000 by the end of 2022, he said.
An artificial island with storage facilities. In addition to sending crude, it would contribute to Iraq’s strategy. They are only maintaining an export capacity that exceeds their production, said Abdul Jabbar. This is “essential”. To guarantee flexibility in case an accident or bad weather interrupts exports from any terminal.
Each of the four-offshore single-point mooring facilities in Iraq can export up to 900,000 bpd. In addition, there is a fifth is under construction.
