Race Against Time

Since the Rumaila service contract entered into effect on Dec.17, BP and the Rumaila operating division of SOC have not been wasting any time. They held the first joint management committee meeting on Jan.20, decided on a $1.7 billion budget for 2010, and launched the first tenders for drilling and supply contracts. The target is to add between 150,000-200,000 b/d by December 2010 and rehabilitate the gas oil separation facilities to handle 1.3 million b/d of capacity.

The 2010 work program involves the drilling of 52 wells and workovers on 30 others. The six companies invited to bid for the drilling contract are Halliburton, Weatherford, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Akkad and CNPC. The way tendering has been handled means that Chinese companies don’t get the first call on the contract. They have to compete with others and they have to deliver.

For the supply contract, six service companies have been invited to bid in addition to CNPC. “Timing is the most important factor for us, not the price,” the head of the Rumaila operating division, Salah Abdul Karim, tells me during an inspection tour of the field last week.

By the time the JMC holds its second meeting on March 24, the award of the tender for the supply of five new rigs to add to 10 others that are already working on the field on previous contracts (six belonging to IDC and four to Weatherford and Akkad), would be ready for approval. What’s more, the 2011 plan includes adding another 10 rigs and drilling 200 additional wells to pump output at Rumaila up to 1.5 million b/d from the current 1.06 million b/d.

But in addition to refurbishing the production plants and the water injection facilities, the real face lift the Rumaila fields will get is first, supplying all 12 production units and 10 water injection plants in North and South Rumaila with an internet connection and second, the new modern headquarters of the Rumaila operating organisation  that will be built over one sq km in South Rumaila with its new staff housing, hotel, restaurants, clubs and maybe later its own airstrip. Rumaila, which has been pumping oil since the mid-1950’s, is finally entering the 21st century.

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