The director of the state-run Basra Oil Company (BOC), Bassem Abdul-Karim Al-Shamkhani, revealed on Thursday that Iraq and the world’s second-largest oil service company, Halliburton, almost finalized an agreement to develop the Nahr Bin Umar oilfield in the southern part of the country.
The Iraqi Ministry of Oil and Halliburton are anticipated to sign an agreement protecting confidentiality in the next days, following which Iraq would provide Halliburton with information on the Nahr Bin Umar field and its installations, Al-Shamkhani told Reuters.
According to Al-Shamkhani, Halliburton will assist Iraq in raising the field’s output to 300,000 barrels per day as part of the agreement but did not provide a timeframe.
The Nahr Bin Umar oilfield currently produces nearly 50,000 barrels per day.
The Iraqi official explained that Halliburton would also assist Iraq in producing 300 million cubic feet of gas from the field.
Al-Shamkhani further illustrated that by the end of 2025, oil output at the PetroChina-operated West Qurna 1 field in southern Iraq is anticipated to increase from the present 550,000 barrels per day to 750,000 barrels per day.
