Iraq has lost production from two southern oil fields with combined capacity of nearly 500,000 b/d, compounding market fears of supply shortfalls and dwindling spare capacity (see p11). The outages are at the 400,000 b/d capacity Lukoil-operated West Qurna-2 (WQ-2) field and the 90,000 b/d Nasiriya field, which is operated by state-firm Dhi Qar Oil Company (DQOC).
The three-week shut-down of WQ-2 appears to be scheduled as part of ongoing work to raise the field’s production capacity to 450,000 b/d later this year (MEES, 3 September 2021). The Nasiriya outages however stem from local unrest, with a local tribe having blocked access to the field’s degassing station and an oil ministry employee murdered. The company said on 25 February that “80,000 b/d in production and exports” were lost, although this seems a significant overstatement given that the field appears to have been running well below capacity due to Opec+ constraints. (CONTINUED - 904 WORDS)
