Oil supermajor Royal Dutch Shell has completed its pull-out of Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield in the south of the country and operations are now in the hands of the state-owned Basra Oil Company, according to Reuters citing local officials.
Shell is to concentrate on developing gas-related projects in the country. Earlier this year, the Anglo-Dutch hydrocarbon giant sold its holding in the West Qurna 1 field to Japan’s Itochu Corporation.
The firm has been focused on a divestment drive and has sold interests in Gaza in Palestine and also at the Mukhaizna field in Oman.
Production at Majnoon is presently at 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) but Iraq’s Oil Ministry has plans to ramp this up to 450,000 bpd within the next three years.
An official told the news agency, “Shell’s exit will not have any effect on production operations and we can increase output without any hurdles.”
Iraq’s overall production is approaching 4.5mn bpd which is below its capacity but is in line with the current output scale backs instigated by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
