LONDON: , Iraq’s oil output target for 2013 is still within reach, even with flows stuck at 3 million barrels a day during the first half of the year, but a lofty goal for 2014 will be far more difficult to meet, oil executives and officials say.
Baghdad has already backtracked on an initial 2013 target of 3.7m barrels per day (b/d), which — with projected growth of 700,000 b/d — unnerved regional rivals, including Saudi Arabia.
The aim now is to hit 3.4m b/d by the end of December as giant southern oil fields pump new oil and flows rise from those already producing. “This is not a high target — it could be reached with no trouble within this year,” Jabbar Al Luaibi, former senior oil ministry adviser and previously head of Iraq’s South Oil Co, said.
After flatlining for decades due to wars and sanctions, Iraq’s output began to expand in 2010 after it secured service contracts with oil titans such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell , Eni and ExxonMobil. Since then, output has risen by 600,000 b/d to 3m b/d courtesy of higher flows from the southern giants of Rumaila, West Qurna-1 and Zubair.
The chief executive of British oil company BP — in charge of operations at Iraq’s biggest oilfield Rumaila — also expects Iraq to achieve its end-year production aim. “I think it’s doable,” Bob Dudley said.
Reaching rates of 3.4m b/d will require the start-up of more southern oil fields — Majnoon, operated by Shell, and West Qurna-2, run by Russia’s Lukoil. Garraf, also in the south, and Badra — farther north — will also contribute. Majnoon is expected to ramp up in July and the field could be pumping up to 175,000 b/d by the end of the year.
Reuters
