Other stories: World’s 10 largest oilfield technology companies | World’s 10 largest petrochemicals companies | Oil industry giants: ADNOC | Oil industry giants: Saudi Aramco | Top 10 MENA Region mega projects | Top 10 billion dollar oil deals of the summer | 2009’s winners and losers in the oil industry | 10 events in oil’s history that shook the world | Top 10 Gulf mega projects | Top 10 largest publicly traded oil companies | World’s 10 largest oilfield services companies | World’s 10 largest oil and gas contractors
The chairman of Pearl Petroleum has told ArabianOilandGas.com that the two gas-condensate fields it operates in Iraqi Kurdistan have enough gas to service both domestic and international demand through the Nabucco pipeline.
In an exclusive interview, Badr Jafar declined to give an exact figure until a full study had been completed, but said his company was “extremely confident” that the estimated reserves of the Khor Mor and Chemchemel fields in the semi-autonomous state in Iraq were considerably higher than the 2.2 trillion cubic feet that had previously been suggested.
“Those reserve figures are based on estimates published by the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad from studies done a long time ago,” Jafar told ArabianOilandGas.com.
“Since then there has been no real survey work done, until our appraisal program. Based on our initial assessment after extensive appraisal work we, collectively as partners in the project, felt confident enough to announce that we would be in a position to produce and supply over 3.5 billion cubic feet of gas daily from these fields combined.”
“This will leave ample supply left after satisfying local requirements to support export projects into neighbouring countries, including beyond into Europe, such as the Nabucco Project,” he added.
Jafar also said that Pearl Petroleum, a joint venture involving the UAE-based Crescent Petroleum (40%) and Dana Gas (40%) as well as Hungary’s OMV (10%) and Austria’s MOL (10%), would be in a position to become the first supplier of gas to the proposed Nabucco Pipeline Project when it commences operations in 2014.
“2014 was announced by the Nabucco consortium as an aim for the Nabucco project to commence gas supplies. At that time they were relying predominantly on Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan,” Jafar told ArabianOilandGas.com.
“The estimate of supply from those countries recently got revised to 2016 and there is still considerable competition for these sources of gas, mainly from Russia.”
“More recently the Nabucco management announced they are sticking to 2014 because the first gas supplies will be coming from Northern Iraq, which is the Pearl project,” Jafar added.
The Nabucco Pipeline is an US$11.25 billion project that after completion will supply between 158 and 459 billon cubic feet of gas per annum to Europe, rising to 1.1 trillion cubic feet by 2020.
A full print interview with Badr Jafar will appear in the November issue of Oil & Gas Middle East. For subscriptions please click here.
