New development deal: for the Zubair oilfield
Eni closes in on Iraq Zubair deal
Iraq's Oil Ministry signed an initial agreement today with a consortium led by Italian oil major Eni to develop the 4-billion-barrel Zubair oilfield.
Eni has said it and its partners Occidental Petroleum Corporation and South Korea's Kogas expected to invest $10 billion in the field as they ramp up production to 1.125 million barrels per day from 195,000 bpd within seven years.
Meanwhile, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said today he expected Italian oil major Eni and its partners to invest $35 billion in the 4-billion-barrel Zubair oilfield over six years.
"The expected investment to reach the production plateau of 1.2 million barrels per day is about $20 billion as capital and $15 billion as an operative cost, which means the total investment is $35 billion over the next six years," Reuters quoted him as saying.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Shahristani by Eni's Middle East head, Nasir Ramadhan, a vice president of Occidental, Glenn Vangolen, and Kogas project manager Chu Nochol, Reuters reported Iraqi officials as saying.
The Ministry also said that it will be holding talks with Japan's Nippon Oil Corporation this week and hopes to sign a contract to develop the super giant Nassiriya oilfield in a few days.
"We hope to finish the talks very soon and sign the contract in the coming few days," Shahristani said.
Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves but decades of war, sanctions and underinvestment mean that it only ranks 11th among global oil producers.