Petronas, operator of the Garraf oil field in Iraq, has opened tendering for a new pipeline to take early production from the field to central export infrastructure.
The Dubai-based subsidiary of Malaysia’s national oil company has begun to ramp up production from Garraf, an overlooked billion-barrel field between the southern cities of Karbala and Nasiriya in Thi Qar governorate, discovered during the 1980s by the then Iraqi oil ministry.
In 2009 Petronas, with junior partner Japex, successfully won the Garraf oilfield with an offer to the Oil Ministrty of $1.49 per barrel remuneration fee and an eventual production target of 230,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Output from the field, currently 35,000 bpd from a start up in September 2011, is expected to hit 50,000 bpd by the end of the year, 60,000 bpd in 2013 and 100,000 bpd in 2014.
Weatherford International is building early production facilties under a $200 million deal, with some work subcontracted to Lakeshore Toltest.
The giant oil services company also has a $52 million contract to drill 11 new wells in Garraf.
