Russian state-firm Gazprom Neft announced on 4 April that it has boosted production from its Iraqi Kurdistan operations by 25%. The firm brought the Sarqala-3 well online at the Garmian block’s Sarqala field (Gazprom Neft 40%op, Western Zagros 40%, KRG 20%), taking production up to 35,000 b/d. This brings the block up to the partners’ planned development target and it is unclear whether the partners will want to expand processing facilities to push production capacity higher (MEES, 14 March 2014).
Garmian is an outlier within the Kurdistan Region’s oil producing blocks in that it is located in the southeast of the region close to the Iranian border. Most neighboring blocks are gas plays. Volumes are of very light 40°API crude. (CONTINUED - 116 WORDS)