MEOG: Iraqi driller restores wells at key oilfields

Iraq’s Ministry of Oil (MoO) this week announced that its drilling subsidiary, the Iraqi Drilling Co. (IDC), has completed restoration works on wells at the supergiant West Qurna-1 and Zubair oilfields.

The MoO told the state-owned Iraqi News Agency (INA) that IDC technicians and engineers performed the restoration as part of the company’s efforts to support production stability across Iraq’s oilfields.

IDC deputy director general Kazem Habash Khalif noted that the Zubair well work was performed under a contract between the field’s operator, Italian IOC Eni, and China’s Great Wall Drilling Co. (GWDC), while the well at West Qurna-1 was restored under contract with operator PetroChina.

He said that the programme’s aim is to raise reservoir pressure and begin output from additional productive layers, raising production from the fields.

WQ1 has a production capacity of just over 550,000 barrels per day of oil – though output is estimated to be at least 50,000-100,000 bpd lower than this – along with around 150mn cubic feet (4.25mn cubic metres) per day of associated gas. Combined oil and condensate reserves are estimated at around 22bn barrels.

The developers of WQ-1 are paid a maximum of just $1.9 per barrel of oil produced from the asset – less than $1.2 per barrel after deduction of taxes – under a 20-year technical services contract (TSC) signed in 2010.

At Zubair, IDC and US services specialist Schlumberger are collaborating on a 37-well drilling campaign that will enable a production capacity increase from the current 475,000 bpd to 850,000 bpd by 2027.

Zubair is home to around 6.4bn barrels of oil, with Eni holding the technical service contract (TSC) for development of these reserves.

In December last year, the MoO announced plans to increase the capture of gas associated with oil production at Zubair. At the time, the Ministry said that associated gas from Zubair would increase to 147 mmcf (4.2 mcm) per day.

In July, IDC reported that it had drilled or reclaimed 105 wells throughout the country during the first half of the year, up from 86 during the same period last year.

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