Rumaila Set For 100,000 b/d 2024 Boost Amid Ambitious BP Water Injection Plans

24 Nov 2023 Issue: 66 / 47 By: Yesar Al-Maleki

Southern Iraq’s key Rumaila field will see its capacity expanded in two 50,000 b/d increments over the next 12 months. Long Iraq’s largest producer, the supergiant field is battling with pressure decline and increased water cut. Lead operator BP aims to re-inject some 1.5mn b/d of produced water to tackle the problem over the coming years with the first 300,000 b/d by end-2024.

Rumaila, Iraq’s largest oilfield and one of the world’s supergiants, has been producing crude for more than 70 years and it’s starting to show. The field, in Basra province, has a nominal capacity of 1.45mn b/d but has become ever-more dependent on secondary recovery to sustain reservoir pressure, and with it oil output. With massive amounts of water required for enhanced oil recovery, Baghdad is banking on TotalEnergies’ planned 5mn b/d seawater treatment plant to feed Rumaila and other fields in the south. But lead operator BP, like other IOCs, is already working on its own plans to secure needed water.

Speaking to local al-Mirbad radio on 29 October, Emad Hassan Lafta, general manager of the Rumaila Operating Organization (ROO), says that current production stands at 1.389mn b/d, 11,000 b/d below planned 2023 output of 1.4mn b/d and some 60,000 b/d below capacity. (CONTINUED - 1867 WORDS)