BAGHDAD: Iraq is negotiating with Exxon Mobil Corp. and Petrochina Co. to develop two oil fields in the south of the country as it seeks to maintain overall production at about 4.8 million barrels a day for the rest of 2016, Deputy Oil Minister Fayyad Al-Nima said.
The companies have submitted offers to develop the Artawi and Nahran Omar fields, which Iraq’s Oil Ministry hopes will produce a combined 550,000 barrels a day, Al-Nima said Wednesday in an interview in Baghdad. The fields together are pumping about 70,000 barrels daily, and the ministry wants to start the project in six months, he said. Al-Nima assumed the duties of oil minister after Adel Abdul Mahdi suspended his participation in the cabinet in March.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest member, is producing 4.78 million barrels a day, with 4 million barrels coming from fields in the south, Al-Nima said. The self-governing Kurdish region in northern Iraq contributed the remainder, pumping more than 700,000 barrels a day independently of the central government, he said. Exports from the south are averaging 3.19 million barrels a day, and the ministry sees shipments reaching 3.2 million by month-end and staying at about that same level until the end of the year, he said.
