MEOG: Field work in Iraq and Saudi

This week, MEOG covers the award of contracts for drilling and field development work at OPEC’s two biggest producers.

The state-owned Iraqi Drilling Co. (IDC) signed a contract with US services specialist Weatherford to collaborate on drilling and reclamation serves and to install new systems as Baghdad pushes ahead with plans to increase oil production capacity.

The deal was announced by the Ministry of Oil (MoO), which quoted IDC director-general Basem Abdul Karim Nasser as saying that the contract would contribute “to raising the level of the company’s performance”.

Under the terms of the contract, the companies will collaborate on system and programme installation as well as knowledge and technology exchange and the provision of associated services.

The MoO noted that IDC has already “strengthened its field activities and the successes it has achieved in terms of quality of performance and completion of projects in record times”.

Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco awarded a contract to UK-based Wood plc and extended another with Australia’s Worley for support services as the Saudi firm seeks to expand production capacity.

Wood signed a two-year, multi-million-dollar deal for engineering and project management services associated with the offshore Marjan and Safaniyah oilfields covering conceptual studies, front-end engineering design (FEED) and project management work to facilitate and cater to increased production as Aramco works to expand maximum sustainable capacity (MSC) from 12mn barrels per day to 13mn bpd.

Worley’s deal also covers support work for the Saudi offshore, with the agreement providing a three-year extension to contracts already held for 19 years.

It said it would continue to provide project management, engineering, design, fabrication and installation supervision for Aramco’s portfolio of offshore projects, which also include the supergiant Berri and Zuluf fields where crude increment programmes are ongoing to raise output.