Oil ministry awards southern oil fields study (28/01/05)

Iraq's Ministry of Oil has awarded a consortium of three international firms a contract to conduct a reservoir study of the Suba-Luhais oil fields in southern Iraq, officials have said.

Vitol, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Dome Oil of the United Arab Emirates have been awarded the study, which is separate to the Suba-Luhais development contract, which hasn't been awarded yet, said an oil official in Baghdad and a consortium executive. The officials wouldn't reveal the value of the contract for the study.

The contract is to study Iraq's oil fields

The ministry earlier this month asked the cabinet to approve its recommendation for the award of the development contract for Suba-Luhais, which calls for raising the two adjoining oil fields' production from 50,000 barrels a day to around 190,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Ireland's Petrel Resources and Canada's Ivanhoe Energy Inc. have said they are already bidding for the development contract. Officials say the awards of pending oil contracts will probably take place after the country's first post-war elections, scheduled for the end of this month.

Earlier in January, the oil ministry awarded two oil field study contracts to international oil firms. BP PLC won a contract to carry out an integrated field study in Iraq's huge southern Rumeila oil fields. The Royal Dutch/Shell Group and the UK's Exploration Consultants Ltd. also won another contract to analyze the northern oil fields of Kirkuk.

Last month, the ministry awarded the country's first post-war oil field development contract, the Khormala Dome, to the UK's DPS, Turkey's Avrasya and Iraq's KAR, the contract was worth $136 million.

The oil ministry has a budget of $3 billion for 2005, which Oil Minister Thamer al-Ghadhban said yesterday would be used for developing oil and gas fields, as well as for improving the country's oil facilities.

Source: OilVoice