Halliburton has been awarded a letter of intent by Shell Iraq Petroleum Development B.V. for the development of the Majnoon field in southern Iraq, in a statement released by the company on Tuesday.
The giant Majnoon field is one of the world’s largest oilfields. The letter of intent provides that Halliburton will serve as project manager for the development work, in affiliation with Nabors Drilling and Iraq Drilling Company (IDC). The contract is still subject to final approval by the appropriate Iraqi authorities.
Shell is lead operator and holds a 45% share, partner Petronas holds 30% and the Iraqi state holds 25% of the participating interests in all licences. Shell has announced that the consortium intends to increase production from the current 45,000 bpd to a targeted production plateau of 1.8 million bpd.
“Halliburton has made a sizeable investment in Iraq and we look forward to providing services to Shell and the consortium in order to increase production at this historic oil field,” said Dave Lesar, Halliburton’s chairman, president and CEO. “We have in place the technology, equipment and personnel to ensure that we deliver the solutions that will help our customers in this region to meet their production goals.”
Halliburton has been active in the Middle East since 1946. Currently, Halliburton has more than 4,000 employees in the Middle East, and construction on phase I of Halliburton’s 400-man base in Burjisia, Iraq is complete.
