Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Oct 13, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Oct 13, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Foreign Trade Iraq invites investment in oil industry Vimala Vasan
Abu Dhabi , Oct. 12 IRAQ is keen to attract huge investment from international firms in its oil and gas sector even as the war-torn country is targeting a boost in oil production from less than 3 million barrels per day, at present, to 6 million bpd by 2010, at an estimated additional cost of $7 billion, Iraqi officials said here on Tuesday. At the ongoing ADIPEC 2004 expo here, Iraqi officials highlighted prospects in the post-war Iraqi oil industry, even as estimates place investment requirements of around $6 billion to restore the Iraqi oil industry to pre-war capacity and an additional $35 billion to $40 billion over the next 10 years to boost production. Iraq is currently pumping 2.8 million barrels per day, though technical problems had reduced the actual production to around 2 million bpd. Further, wars, negligence and lack of maintenance of oil fields meant that huge investments, in both upstream and downstream sectors, were needed to rehabilitate existing oil fields and drill new wells in order to boost production, the experts said. The huge oil and gas reserves in Iraq were currently estimated at proven reserves of 115 billion barrels, with possible reserves of another 214 billion barrels. There were nearly 90 super giant fields in Iraq waiting to be explored, the experts said. The advantages of Iraqi oil fields were its high value and quality, excellent geographical locations and exceptionally low production costs. The immediate need, the experts said, was tackling the technical problems and damaged reservoirs in all the giant operational fields. The Iraqi oil industry is also keen on acquiring modern technology to boost production, reduce environmental damage and conduct fresh seismic studies for new wells.
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