Services firm Weatherford this week signed an 18-month contract with Iraqi Drilling Company (IDC) to drill 20 wells at Nasiriya oil field in Dhi Qar province. This follows an announcement last year that the field’s state-owned operator, Dhi Qar Company, would enlist IDC to drill 20 wells for the price tag of $128mn over 24 months in a bid to boost the field’s production capacity by 40,000 b/d to 200,000 b/d with a gas production capacity hiked to 100mn cfd (MEES, 13 September 2019). IDC presumably wasn’t up to carrying out work on its own and enlisted the US-headquartered firm to meet the deadline.
Nasiriya output last year stood at around 100,000 b/d, but as a state-operated field, this has likely been cut substantially as Iraq tries to comply with its Opec+ commitment (MEES, 12 June). Baghdad has previously tried to offer up the field to foreign operators – most recently via an integrated upstream-refinery project with Total (MEES, 7 December 2018) – but tight terms have dissuaded investment. Services firms have thus taken charge: Baker Hughes is also present at the field, currently building a 200mn cfd gas capture plant (MEES, 3 August 2018). (CONTINUED - 186 WORDS)