The Ministry of Oil announced today, Sunday, the details of the projects attached to the fifth and sixth licensing round, while confirming the progress of compensating the depleted reserves of oil and gas.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil for Extraction Affairs, Bassem Muhammad Khudair, said in his speech at the First Iraq International Exhibition and Conference for Oil Projects and Licensing Rounds, “The Ministry of Oil and all its companies are keen to support all development projects in the country to achieve optimal investment of the country’s wealth of oil, gas and natural resources, use clean energy and provide more job opportunities for the national workforce, in addition to increasing the volume of investments in the oil and energy sector, especially in infrastructure development, gas exploration and investment, closing the flared gas file, as well as increasing production capacity, rehabilitating the infrastructure, and improving the conditions of the oil working environment to keep pace with global development.”
He added, “We emphasize exerting unremitting efforts to overcome all obstacles to the completion and implementation of all projects,” noting that “the Ministry of Oil signed four licensing rounds from 2009 until the first quarter of 2013, two of which resume increasing the production of major important fields and the third to develop gas fields.” The fourth round was allocated to the oil exploration block.
He continued, “The Ministry of Oil conducted in February of this year, in the presence of Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani, the final signing ceremony for the fifth licensing round for the border blocks and fields, which is expected to achieve crude oil production at a rate of 250,000 barrels per day, gas production at a rate of one thousand million standard cubic feet, and investment of associated gas and natural gas and provide the necessary quantities of gas to meet the country’s need and increase its reserves of hydrocarbons to achieve economic reforms, which are a main focus of the government program.
He pointed out that “the Ministry of Oil has announced two rounds, which are a supplement to the fifth round and the sixth round, and the total number of its projects is 30 projects,” pointing out that “the projects are distributed by 16 projects within the annex to the fifth round, including 8 exploration blocks with promising oil and 8 oil fields, and the 14 projects within the sixth round, there are 11 exploration blocks with gas promise and 3 with oil promise.
He pointed out that “the Ministry of Oil was keen on the geographical distribution of these projects and included all the provinces of the country, starting from Nineveh Governorate, passing through the governorates of Anbar, Salah al-Din, the honorable Najaf, the holy Karbala, Babylon, Qadisiyah, Muthanna, Basra, Maysan, Wasit, Diyala, and the capital, Baghdad, to contribute to achieving security and economic prosperity in the areas of these projects.” He stressed the keenness of the Ministry of Oil towards the winning companies of the contracts for the fifth and sixth rounds by securing and providing all requirements and work requirements in various technical, administrative, legal and security fields.
He explained that “the state’s vision and strategy is to upgrade the oil sector at various levels and strive to provide the environment to attractive investment for qualified international companies is an invitation to all international companies to compete in various sectors of the oil industry to transfer modern technology and develop the capabilities of national cadres in a way that qualifies them to manage the leading oil industry that operates under the umbrella of international standards and regulations for the oil industry.
He stressed, “We are going to replace the depleted oil and gas reserves and add new reserves through seismic surveys that are carried out by the Oil Exploration Company day and night and in various governorates to discover oil and gas fields and structures, so the Ministry has embarked on supporting the exploration activity to discover fields and structures, which is followed by the stage of development and production, which reflects our need for international companies specialized in the field of exploration and development.”
Source: National Iraqi News Agency