Production from Iraq’s West Qurna 2 oilfield has reached around 402,000 barrels per day and is expected to rise to 420,000 bpd by the end of the year, Reuters reports. Â
The field’s current output is up from less than 350,000 bpd in September 2014, posting a significant increase since the phase first came online.
“There is no more curtailment and we were at 402,000 bpd yesterday so we are very happy and we hopefully will go up to 420,000 bpd by end of the year,” senior vice president of Lukoil Overseas Gati Al-Jebouri said at a conference in London.
The rise in output occurred as a result of the split in exports of Basra crude grades to heavy and light, he added.
West Qurna 2 development project, operated by Lukoil, has a production capacity of over 400,000 barrels per day, while West Qurna — one of Iraq’s largest oilfields — is believed to hold 43bn barrels of recoverable reserves.
The field was closed to Western firms due to years-long sanctions but has reopened for development in recent years.
Last September, Lukoil shipped two oil carriers with the capacity of 2mn barrels each from the port in Basra to ports in Italy. Crude from one of the carriers was sent to be processed at Lukoil’s ISAB refinery in Priolo, Sicily.
