The Challenge of Producing Joint Fields

The issue of producing shared or joint fields that straddle borders between Iraq and its neighbors is not new. It’s actually several decades old. The first example was the case of Naft Khana and Naft Shah oil fields, the names are for the parts of a single anticlinal structure extending across the border between Iraq and Iran. Many other examples are present such as the Dahlaran-North Abu Ghirab and Fauqa…

Iraq Energy Outlook

A capacity of 6 million b/d though achievable but is not the answer to the state requirements of revenue, while 12 million b/d can’t be maintained for a long time and requires higher investment within a short number of years and involves a high risk if the markets cannot absorb it. Committing huge investments to end up with an idle capacity is not an ideal scenario for Iraq. In my…

Production Capacity Strategy

One of the pending issues that was talked about and questioned, and may be considered as a challenge, is the future level of Iraq’s production capacity. Conflicting statements have been issued recently by a number of governmental sources. No doubt the country has committed   itself to a major expansion program and it’s cooperating with reputable international oil companies. It’s well understood that those contracts require timely planning, not just as…

West Qurna, Rumaila & Water Injection (2)

1. The Mishrif reservoirs requires tighter specifications of water quality, our previous laboratory experiments which involved among many tests, flooding full cores at reservoir conditions, led to the conclusion that the size of suspended solids should be less than 5 microns as compared with 10 microns for the Main Pay in south and north Rumaila Fields. The reduction of particle size down to 5 microns could be achieved by using…