Reuters reports that Iraq’s state-run Iraqi Drilling Company has started work at the Zubair oil field under a $250 million contract to drill 23 new wells in the field.
Director Idrees al-Yassiri said the two-year contract also included overhauling 63 old wells in Zubair.
“We have started executing the contract awarded to us by ENI … The total expected production after completing the project will be more than 250,000 barrels per day from these wells,” Yassiri said during a trip to the oilfield.
Italy’s ENI, U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum and South Korea’s KOGAS signed a 20-year deal with Iraq to develop Zubair. They set an eventual output target of 1.2 million barrels per day.
The Iraqi company has also floated a tender to purchase five drilling towers and has invited foreign companies to bid, Yassiri said, without giving further details.
(Source: Reuters)