On hold: talks over the nassirya development are taking a back seat until Baghdad finalises its debut round
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Nassiriya talks take a back seat
Iraq has said talks with producers, including Italian giant Eni, to develop the Nassiriya field will take a backseat until after the country’s first licensing round ends this month.
Awarding an engineering contract to develop Nassiriya is not the government’s priority, Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, deputy director general at the Petroleum Licensing Contracts Department, told Bloomberg in an interview.
“We’re not interesting ourselves with that for the time being,” al-Ameedi said. It’s “possible” a decision may be taken next month, after the licensing round concludes.
Iraq aims to attract foreign investors to help boost oil production after six years of conflict and prior sanctions destroyed its infrastructure. The government, running two bidding rounds for oil and gas field development rights, plans to boost output to about 6 million barrels per day by 2015.
The country had expected to award a engineering and procurement contract for Nassiriyah this month, Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani said in May. The site is set to produce 100,000 bpd 18 months after the contract is awarded, the Oil Ministry has said.
Iraq invited Italy’s Eni, Spain’s Repsol YPF and Nippon Oil of Japan to make direct offers to develop Nassiriya. The government received commercial and technical offers for the field and needs to further discuss terms for developing the deposit with the bidders, al-Ameedi said.
The first licensing round is still on schedule and the government will open offers and name winners of licences to develop six oil and two natural gas fields in Baghdad on 29 and 30 June.