Posted : Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:27:48 GMT
By : dpa
Category : Business
Baghdad - A consortium led by Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell on Monday signed a contract with the Iraqi government to develop one of the country's largest oil fields. "I am happy to conclude this contract with these two major companies to develop the giant West Qurna oil field," Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said at the signing ceremony in Baghdad.
Exxon and Shell in November agreed to boost production from the West Qurna oil field from its current level of 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.325 million bpd over the course of 20 years.
Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad at the time said the consortium's offer to boost production so significantly had helped it beat Russian energy giant Lukoil in bidding for the contract, which began last June.
Al-Shahristani said contracts awarded to the world's largest energy companies would make Iraq among the largest oil producers in the world.
"Iraq will be the only country able to meet the needs of the world crude-oil market in the future," he said in a statement.
Iraq relies on the 2.5 million bpd it produces for more than 90 per cent of its government revenue and about 60 per cent of its gross national product.
Al-Shahristani said revenue from oil sales would top 41 billion dollars this, 5 billion more than what had been expected.
"The total production of foreign companies is expected to exceed 11 million bpd in the coming year and years," the oil minister said.
The contracts with the foreign companies contain clauses requiring that 85 per cent of engineers and technicians working on the fields be Iraqi, which he said would annually provide as much as 200 billion dollars to the Iraqi economy.
He further said Iraq would negotiate with other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to raise global production quotas to 12 million bpd to accommodate Iraq's increased production.
Copyright DPA
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305664,exxon-shell-sign-contract-to-develop-major-iraqi-oil-field.html
