Shares in Afren, the FTSE 250 oil explorer, rose more than 10 per cent on Tuesday morning after it released details of a potentially “transformational” oil find in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Drilling results at a well operated by its US partner Hunt Oil at the Simrit field within the Ain Sifni licence area pointed to “strong hydrocarbon shows” at a field that has been previously estimated to contain up to 917m barrels of recoverable oil.
Afren holds a 20 per cent stake in the field, which is adjacent to the Barda Rash licence area in which it has a 60 per cent stake.
Hunt Oil, the privately held operator controlled by Ray Hunt, owns a 60 per cent interest in the Simrit field with the remainder held by Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government.
Shares in Afren jumped 15.2p, or more than 10 per cent, to 149.7p on Tuesday morning before settling back to 143p, up 6 per cent compared with Monday’s closing price.
Indications of a large reservoir of light oil in the north Iraqi block represents the second exploration success for Afren this year. In January, Afren shares rose 13 per cent to 130p after it announced a further oil discovery off the coast of south-east Nigeria close to its main producing Okoro field in the area.
Osman Shahenshah, Afren’s chief executive, said on Tuesday: “The scale of the oil column that has been intersected suggests that the Simrit structure and surrounding prospects elsewhere on the Ain Sifni PSC [licence] have the potential to be transformational for Afren.”
Afren agreed to buy stakes in the two oilfields in Kurdistan last July for $588m, paying Moldova’s Komet Group $418m for the majority stake in the Barda Rash field and $170m to Kurdistan’s regional government for a fifth of Ain Sifni.
Success for Hunt Oil and its UK partner follows controversy in 2007 when the Dallas-based operator became the first foreign company to gain permission to drill for oil in the region following the passing of an oil and gas law, which allowed the issuing of licences by the regional government based in Erbil.
Mr Hunt, a leading political donor and adviser to former US president George W. Bush, pushed ahead with the deal in spite of protests from Baghdad that the unilateral granting of licences by the Kurdistan regional government was illegal.
Afren’s Kurdish fields are close to the Shaikan field operated by Gulf Keystone Petroleum, which has established itself as a favourite but volatile Aim-quoted stock for investors over the past two years.
Other early investors in the area close to Afren’s licences who have also struck deals with the regional government in Erbil include Norway’s DNO, Hungary’s MOL, India’s Reliance and Austria’s OMV.
Genel Energy, created out of the merger of Turkey’s Genel Enerji with financier Nat Rothschild’s investment vehicle Vallares last year, is also active in the semi-autonomous region while last October ExxonMobil became the first “supermajor” to strike an exploration deal with the regional government in spite of protests from Baghdad.
Although Baghdad and Erbil have brokered an oil revenue-sharing agreement, disputes between both sides saw Erbil order the suspension of exports of crude oil from the region earlier this month amid complaints of late payment of royalties by Baghdad.
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Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Tue Jun 11, 2013 12:36 am
Guardian
Golden oil of Iraqi Kurdistan raises tensions with Baghdad
On a hot and dusty plateau in Iraqi Kurdistan, engineers in hard hats are gathered around a section of new pipeline as they check final test data before oil starts flowing for the first time directly across the border to Turkey. Twin flare towers behind a bank of storage tanks send viscous black smoke billowing into the sky.
The powerful smell of sulphur is an indicator of the quality of what lies underground. "It's the champagne of Kurdistan," grins Joe Stein, a softly spoken Texan who is operations manager for the joint Turkish-Chinese venture at Taq Taq, part of the last great onshore oilfield in the world. "It's very light. It's very good for refineries. It's high grade and easy to produce. It's golden oil."
Hydrocarbon wealth is transforming this strategic corner of the Middle East at a time of dramatic change and extreme violence across the region – elsewhere in Iraq itself, where a post-2006 record of 1,000 people were killed in May alone, as well as in neighbouring Syria.
With an estimated 45bn barrels of reserves – the fourth largest in the world – and a century's worth of natural gas, the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) has become a big player in a geologically exciting but politically sensitive market.
In just a few weeks a final section of the new pipeline from Taq Taq will tie in to the border metering station at Fishkhabour, allowing 300,000 barrels of crude a day to begin flowing into Turkey. Targets are 1m barrels a day in 2015, and 2m in 2019.
Crucially, this is being done without the approval of the federal government in Baghdad, which is locked in a bitter dispute with the KRG over the terms of the Iraqi constitution and the revenue-sharing that is supposed to flow from it. Economic independence – and perhaps more – is suddenly within sight for a sizeable chunk of the world's biggest group of stateless people.
"Sharing wealth is a fundamental instrument of power," argues Ashti Hawrami, the KRG's natural resources minister. "By not implementing the constitution, Baghdad is encouraging instability and disintegration. The only way we can survive is by having economic development. Slogans about democracy are not enough."
Officials in Erbil, the KRG's booming capital, complain that Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shia prime minister, is wedded to the same authoritarian style and centralised administration that the Kurds hoped had gone with Saddam Hussein. Based on their share of the country's population, the KRG is supposed to get 17% of national revenues. Baghdad in turn accuses the Kurds of acting unconstitutionally. The KRG retorts that whatever they earn, they will pay 83% into the national treasury.
"There is a huge gap between this Iraq and the other Iraq," muses Fuad Hussein, an adviser to the KRG president, Massoud Barzani, whose photograph adorns every government office. "My generation grew up in Iraq and we were part of the Kurdish resistance. The new generation already has freedom. They will not accept losing it again."
Other contentious issues include payment for Kurdish peshmerga fighters, compensation for the victims of Saddam's genocide and the status of disputed areas such as Kirkuk, from where Kurds were ethnically cleansed. But oil and the new link with Turkey are giving the KRG a strong hand to play in the game of nations.
Seeking to mend fences, Maliki visited Erbil for the first time in two years on Sunday, but his talks with Barzani were largely symbolic. "Neither I nor President Barzani has a magic wand," he quipped.
Barzani had warned that the latest contacts with Baghdad were the last chance, with the oil multinationals now calling the shots. Exxon Mobil's landmark agreement with Turkey, risking retaliation against its own operations in southern Iraq, is at odds with US government policy. Maliki has condemned it outright as illegal. But Chevron, Total and Russia's Gazprom are taking risks too. Fifty companies have invested $20bn (£13bn).
Iraq has had an oil industry since the 1920s but Kurdistan's was started from scratch in 2006 because it was never developed under Saddam, who milked the country's hydrocarbon wealth to buy weapons to kill Kurds in the infamous Anfal campaign and to invade Iran and Kuwait. "This is all oil Iraq never knew it had," says an official in Erbil. "It's intoxicating. There is a sense of history about what is happening here."
The row over the unpaid revenues is grimly familiar, says the independent journalist Hiwa Osman. "For the KRG, it feels as if it's still dealing with the same Baghdad. Its economic sanctions are straight from Saddam's playbook."
Kurdistan's stability is a strong pull for foreign investors. Security at Taq Taq is run by a UK company employing former South African special forces, with the KRG's oil-protection force guarding the perimeter and Ashaish, its CIA-trained intelligence service, watching closely. Peshmerga checkpoints line the roads to Mosul and Kirkuk, where al-Qaida bombings are as frequent as in Baghdad.
Erbil has become the exploration capital of the world, and the bars of its best hotels echo with multilingual banter about oil and associated deals. The Turkish energy company Genel, partnered with China's Sinopec at Taq Taq, is run by Tony Hayward, the former BP chief executive who was forced to quit after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In the face of such intense interest, awareness is growing of the effect on the KRG economy and the urgent need for a skilled local workforce. "Now everyone wants to go to university to do an oil-related degree," says a young professional woman, "but we don't yet have the resources." Her husband has just quit a secure civil service job to move into private-sector oil services. It looks like a smart and potentially lucrative career choice.
Outside of government circles, some suspect Turkey's motives – not surprising given its historic hostility to the Kurds. There is a vivid reminder in the shadow of Erbil's ancient citadel, where young men collect signatures in support of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed PKK leader whose peace talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan are another important strand of the region's shifting geopolitical landscape.
"Oil in Kurdistan is not just about Iraq," argues Asos Hardi, of the independent newspaper Awene. "It's about relations with Syria, Iran and with the US, which opposes what the KRG is doing. Everyone is using Kurdistan.
"Erdogan wants to play the Kurdish card. That's his game, not an independent Kurdistan."
Exactly how and where oil revenues will be spent is another worry. Hawrami's officials highlight "capacity-building" agreements under which foreign companies pay for facilities that give ordinary Kurds a share of the region's wealth. Norway is cited as an example of prudent planning and diversification. Gorran, the main opposition party, complains of corruption and nepotism in Barzani's KDP. But Kamal Kirkuki, the party spokesman, dismisses "negative propaganda by an unhealthy and immature opposition".
Uncertainty about the future has been a staple of Kurdish life for decades. But Taq Taq and other oilfields, Turkey's volatile politics and voracious energy needs, and the ambitions of the world's biggest oil companies are creating new options. For the moment the Kurds of Iraq seem to be improving their bargaining position to try to force a reluctant Baghdad to comply with the federal constitution. If that does not happen, then all bets are off.
"Iraq is going to hell," says Hussein, Barzani's adviser. "If we cannot live together we must talk about something else. We Kurds are not part of the conflict between Shia and Sunnis. But if there is a fire in the house next door, it will burn you too in the end. And there is no fireman."
Foreigners have heard this message, and tend to agree. "Iraq is disintegrating slowly," observed an Erbil-based diplomat. "Over the last two years the Kurds have been pushed into a corner. Baghdad is no longer their point of reference so they started looking elsewhere. Now Turkey is giving them the possibility of making money out of oil. But oil could be a trigger for the division of Iraq. If there is no agreement on oil, there is no Iraq."
A troubled history
Iraq's 5 million Kurds have experienced relative stability since the end of the 1991 Gulf war, when they were liberated from Saddam Hussein and lived under a no-fly zone protected by US and British air power.
A persecuted people who famously had "no friends but the mountains", they were allied with the post-cold war world's only superpower. Iraq's 2005 federal constitution gave the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) an unprecedented degree of self-government.
But the last few months have also held out the prospect of change for the 14-17 million Kurds in Turkey, where the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is in negotiations with the jailed Abdallah Öcalan, leader of the PKK and its 30-year insurrection.
Syria's 1.6 million Kurds have made big gains since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad and now control the north-east of the country – though their status has bedevilled relations with the Arab opposition.
Kurds in Iran (7 million) enjoy minority rights but experience persecution. The Tehran government is concerned that PKK fighters leaving Turkey may now launch attacks inside Iran. Öcalan has talked of creating a "stateless union" between Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, which would increase integration while maintaining national borders.
Kurdish leaders everywhere are painfully conscious of a history of oppression and betrayal by supposed friends. Hopes for statehood after the first world war came to nothing and the British put down a Kurdish revolt in Iraq in the 1920s. In 1946 the short-lived Mahabad republic in Iran was abandoned by the Soviet Union. In 1975 the US withdrew its support for an Iraqi Kurdish rebellion mounted from Iran and secretly aided by Israel, as part of a rapprochement between Baghdad and the Shah of Iran. "Covert action," Henry Kissinger told Mullah Mustafa Barzani, father of the current KRG president, "is not missionary work."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ju ... an-baghdad
Golden oil of Iraqi Kurdistan raises tensions with Baghdad
On a hot and dusty plateau in Iraqi Kurdistan, engineers in hard hats are gathered around a section of new pipeline as they check final test data before oil starts flowing for the first time directly across the border to Turkey. Twin flare towers behind a bank of storage tanks send viscous black smoke billowing into the sky.
The powerful smell of sulphur is an indicator of the quality of what lies underground. "It's the champagne of Kurdistan," grins Joe Stein, a softly spoken Texan who is operations manager for the joint Turkish-Chinese venture at Taq Taq, part of the last great onshore oilfield in the world. "It's very light. It's very good for refineries. It's high grade and easy to produce. It's golden oil."
Hydrocarbon wealth is transforming this strategic corner of the Middle East at a time of dramatic change and extreme violence across the region – elsewhere in Iraq itself, where a post-2006 record of 1,000 people were killed in May alone, as well as in neighbouring Syria.
With an estimated 45bn barrels of reserves – the fourth largest in the world – and a century's worth of natural gas, the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) has become a big player in a geologically exciting but politically sensitive market.
In just a few weeks a final section of the new pipeline from Taq Taq will tie in to the border metering station at Fishkhabour, allowing 300,000 barrels of crude a day to begin flowing into Turkey. Targets are 1m barrels a day in 2015, and 2m in 2019.
Crucially, this is being done without the approval of the federal government in Baghdad, which is locked in a bitter dispute with the KRG over the terms of the Iraqi constitution and the revenue-sharing that is supposed to flow from it. Economic independence – and perhaps more – is suddenly within sight for a sizeable chunk of the world's biggest group of stateless people.
"Sharing wealth is a fundamental instrument of power," argues Ashti Hawrami, the KRG's natural resources minister. "By not implementing the constitution, Baghdad is encouraging instability and disintegration. The only way we can survive is by having economic development. Slogans about democracy are not enough."
Officials in Erbil, the KRG's booming capital, complain that Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shia prime minister, is wedded to the same authoritarian style and centralised administration that the Kurds hoped had gone with Saddam Hussein. Based on their share of the country's population, the KRG is supposed to get 17% of national revenues. Baghdad in turn accuses the Kurds of acting unconstitutionally. The KRG retorts that whatever they earn, they will pay 83% into the national treasury.
"There is a huge gap between this Iraq and the other Iraq," muses Fuad Hussein, an adviser to the KRG president, Massoud Barzani, whose photograph adorns every government office. "My generation grew up in Iraq and we were part of the Kurdish resistance. The new generation already has freedom. They will not accept losing it again."
Other contentious issues include payment for Kurdish peshmerga fighters, compensation for the victims of Saddam's genocide and the status of disputed areas such as Kirkuk, from where Kurds were ethnically cleansed. But oil and the new link with Turkey are giving the KRG a strong hand to play in the game of nations.
Seeking to mend fences, Maliki visited Erbil for the first time in two years on Sunday, but his talks with Barzani were largely symbolic. "Neither I nor President Barzani has a magic wand," he quipped.
Barzani had warned that the latest contacts with Baghdad were the last chance, with the oil multinationals now calling the shots. Exxon Mobil's landmark agreement with Turkey, risking retaliation against its own operations in southern Iraq, is at odds with US government policy. Maliki has condemned it outright as illegal. But Chevron, Total and Russia's Gazprom are taking risks too. Fifty companies have invested $20bn (£13bn).
Iraq has had an oil industry since the 1920s but Kurdistan's was started from scratch in 2006 because it was never developed under Saddam, who milked the country's hydrocarbon wealth to buy weapons to kill Kurds in the infamous Anfal campaign and to invade Iran and Kuwait. "This is all oil Iraq never knew it had," says an official in Erbil. "It's intoxicating. There is a sense of history about what is happening here."
The row over the unpaid revenues is grimly familiar, says the independent journalist Hiwa Osman. "For the KRG, it feels as if it's still dealing with the same Baghdad. Its economic sanctions are straight from Saddam's playbook."
Kurdistan's stability is a strong pull for foreign investors. Security at Taq Taq is run by a UK company employing former South African special forces, with the KRG's oil-protection force guarding the perimeter and Ashaish, its CIA-trained intelligence service, watching closely. Peshmerga checkpoints line the roads to Mosul and Kirkuk, where al-Qaida bombings are as frequent as in Baghdad.
Erbil has become the exploration capital of the world, and the bars of its best hotels echo with multilingual banter about oil and associated deals. The Turkish energy company Genel, partnered with China's Sinopec at Taq Taq, is run by Tony Hayward, the former BP chief executive who was forced to quit after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In the face of such intense interest, awareness is growing of the effect on the KRG economy and the urgent need for a skilled local workforce. "Now everyone wants to go to university to do an oil-related degree," says a young professional woman, "but we don't yet have the resources." Her husband has just quit a secure civil service job to move into private-sector oil services. It looks like a smart and potentially lucrative career choice.
Outside of government circles, some suspect Turkey's motives – not surprising given its historic hostility to the Kurds. There is a vivid reminder in the shadow of Erbil's ancient citadel, where young men collect signatures in support of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed PKK leader whose peace talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan are another important strand of the region's shifting geopolitical landscape.
"Oil in Kurdistan is not just about Iraq," argues Asos Hardi, of the independent newspaper Awene. "It's about relations with Syria, Iran and with the US, which opposes what the KRG is doing. Everyone is using Kurdistan.
"Erdogan wants to play the Kurdish card. That's his game, not an independent Kurdistan."
Exactly how and where oil revenues will be spent is another worry. Hawrami's officials highlight "capacity-building" agreements under which foreign companies pay for facilities that give ordinary Kurds a share of the region's wealth. Norway is cited as an example of prudent planning and diversification. Gorran, the main opposition party, complains of corruption and nepotism in Barzani's KDP. But Kamal Kirkuki, the party spokesman, dismisses "negative propaganda by an unhealthy and immature opposition".
Uncertainty about the future has been a staple of Kurdish life for decades. But Taq Taq and other oilfields, Turkey's volatile politics and voracious energy needs, and the ambitions of the world's biggest oil companies are creating new options. For the moment the Kurds of Iraq seem to be improving their bargaining position to try to force a reluctant Baghdad to comply with the federal constitution. If that does not happen, then all bets are off.
"Iraq is going to hell," says Hussein, Barzani's adviser. "If we cannot live together we must talk about something else. We Kurds are not part of the conflict between Shia and Sunnis. But if there is a fire in the house next door, it will burn you too in the end. And there is no fireman."
Foreigners have heard this message, and tend to agree. "Iraq is disintegrating slowly," observed an Erbil-based diplomat. "Over the last two years the Kurds have been pushed into a corner. Baghdad is no longer their point of reference so they started looking elsewhere. Now Turkey is giving them the possibility of making money out of oil. But oil could be a trigger for the division of Iraq. If there is no agreement on oil, there is no Iraq."
A troubled history
Iraq's 5 million Kurds have experienced relative stability since the end of the 1991 Gulf war, when they were liberated from Saddam Hussein and lived under a no-fly zone protected by US and British air power.
A persecuted people who famously had "no friends but the mountains", they were allied with the post-cold war world's only superpower. Iraq's 2005 federal constitution gave the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) an unprecedented degree of self-government.
But the last few months have also held out the prospect of change for the 14-17 million Kurds in Turkey, where the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is in negotiations with the jailed Abdallah Öcalan, leader of the PKK and its 30-year insurrection.
Syria's 1.6 million Kurds have made big gains since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad and now control the north-east of the country – though their status has bedevilled relations with the Arab opposition.
Kurds in Iran (7 million) enjoy minority rights but experience persecution. The Tehran government is concerned that PKK fighters leaving Turkey may now launch attacks inside Iran. Öcalan has talked of creating a "stateless union" between Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, which would increase integration while maintaining national borders.
Kurdish leaders everywhere are painfully conscious of a history of oppression and betrayal by supposed friends. Hopes for statehood after the first world war came to nothing and the British put down a Kurdish revolt in Iraq in the 1920s. In 1946 the short-lived Mahabad republic in Iran was abandoned by the Soviet Union. In 1975 the US withdrew its support for an Iraqi Kurdish rebellion mounted from Iran and secretly aided by Israel, as part of a rapprochement between Baghdad and the Shah of Iran. "Covert action," Henry Kissinger told Mullah Mustafa Barzani, father of the current KRG president, "is not missionary work."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ju ... an-baghdad
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Tue Jun 11, 2013 9:38 pm
Oil Voice
DNO International announces Jurassic discovery, successful horizontal drilling in Tawke license
DNO International ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas company, announced that its deep Tawke-17 well tested 1,500 barrels a day of 26-28 degree API crude oil from an Upper Jurassic reservoir underlying the Tawke field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Separately, the Tawke-20 well, the Company's first horizontal well in the Tawke field, has flowed an average of 8,000 barrels a day from each of the first four of ten fractured corridors penetrated by the well. Testing continues on both wells.
"We are very pleased that initial Tawke-17 results are in line with the Company's pre-drill estimates," said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO International's Executive Chairman. "This discovery in the Sargelu formation, over 200 meters below the main field Cretaceous reservoir, likely bumps recoverable reserves on the Tawke license to the one billion barrel mark," he added.
Drilling of a second Tawke horizontal well continues on schedule. "If this second well, Tawke-23, demonstrates the significant deliverability uptick we are now seeing in Tawke-20, we will go back to the drawing board and consider further enhancements to our current target of 200,000 barrels a day of production capacity by 2015," Mr. Mossavar-Rahmani said. Last month the Company announced that it had met its previous goal of delivering 100,000 barrels a day from the Tawke field following 72 hours of well and facility tests.
The Tawke-17 well, the deepest drilled by the Company in the Tawke field, encountered several Triassic zones that proved either tight or water bearing. Two additional identified reservoir intervals in the Upper Jurassic remain to be perforated and tested.
DNO International holds a 55 percent interest in and operates the Tawke license. Genel Energy plc holds 25 percent and the Kurdistan Regional Government the remaining 20 percent interest.
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/DNO_Internati ... d4081.aspx
DNO International announces Jurassic discovery, successful horizontal drilling in Tawke license
DNO International ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas company, announced that its deep Tawke-17 well tested 1,500 barrels a day of 26-28 degree API crude oil from an Upper Jurassic reservoir underlying the Tawke field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Separately, the Tawke-20 well, the Company's first horizontal well in the Tawke field, has flowed an average of 8,000 barrels a day from each of the first four of ten fractured corridors penetrated by the well. Testing continues on both wells.
"We are very pleased that initial Tawke-17 results are in line with the Company's pre-drill estimates," said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO International's Executive Chairman. "This discovery in the Sargelu formation, over 200 meters below the main field Cretaceous reservoir, likely bumps recoverable reserves on the Tawke license to the one billion barrel mark," he added.
Drilling of a second Tawke horizontal well continues on schedule. "If this second well, Tawke-23, demonstrates the significant deliverability uptick we are now seeing in Tawke-20, we will go back to the drawing board and consider further enhancements to our current target of 200,000 barrels a day of production capacity by 2015," Mr. Mossavar-Rahmani said. Last month the Company announced that it had met its previous goal of delivering 100,000 barrels a day from the Tawke field following 72 hours of well and facility tests.
The Tawke-17 well, the deepest drilled by the Company in the Tawke field, encountered several Triassic zones that proved either tight or water bearing. Two additional identified reservoir intervals in the Upper Jurassic remain to be perforated and tested.
DNO International holds a 55 percent interest in and operates the Tawke license. Genel Energy plc holds 25 percent and the Kurdistan Regional Government the remaining 20 percent interest.
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/DNO_Internati ... d4081.aspx
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Tue Jun 11, 2013 9:39 pm
Oil Voice
Genel Energy plc notes that DNO International ASA, as operator of the Tawke Field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, has today issued the following press release:
"[The] deep Tawke-17 well tested 1,500 barrels a day of 26-28 degree API crude oil from an Upper Jurassic reservoir underlying the Tawke field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Separately, the Tawke-20 well, the Company's first horizontal well in the Tawke field, has flowed an average of 8,000 barrels a day from each of the first four of ten fractured corridors penetrated by the well. Testing continues on both wells.
"We are very pleased that initial Tawke-17 results are in line with the Company's pre-drill estimates," said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO International's Executive Chairman. "This discovery in the Sargelu formation, over 200 meters below the main field Cretaceous reservoir, likely bumps recoverable reserves on the Tawke license to the one billion barrel mark," he added.
Drilling of a second Tawke horizontal well continues on schedule. "If this second well, Tawke-23, demonstrates the significant deliverability uptick we are now seeing in Tawke-20, we will go back to the drawing board and consider further enhancements to our current target of 200,000 barrels a day of production capacity by 2015," Mr. Mossavar-Rahmani said. Last month the Company announced that it had met its previous goal of delivering 100,000 barrels a day from the Tawke field following 72 hours of well and facility tests.
The Tawke-17 well, the deepest drilled by the Company in the Tawke field, encountered several Triassic zones that proved either tight or water bearing. Two additional identified reservoir intervals in the Upper Jurassic remain to be perforated and tested."
Tony Hayward, Chief Executive of Genel Energy, said:
"Today's news reinforces the extremely positive first half of 2013 that Genel has had with the drill bit, with the company having three new discoveries in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the space of three months. We look forward to working with DNO to determine the full extent of the new discovery."
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Genel_Energy_ ... 013ad.aspx
Genel Energy plc notes that DNO International ASA, as operator of the Tawke Field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, has today issued the following press release:
"[The] deep Tawke-17 well tested 1,500 barrels a day of 26-28 degree API crude oil from an Upper Jurassic reservoir underlying the Tawke field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Separately, the Tawke-20 well, the Company's first horizontal well in the Tawke field, has flowed an average of 8,000 barrels a day from each of the first four of ten fractured corridors penetrated by the well. Testing continues on both wells.
"We are very pleased that initial Tawke-17 results are in line with the Company's pre-drill estimates," said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO International's Executive Chairman. "This discovery in the Sargelu formation, over 200 meters below the main field Cretaceous reservoir, likely bumps recoverable reserves on the Tawke license to the one billion barrel mark," he added.
Drilling of a second Tawke horizontal well continues on schedule. "If this second well, Tawke-23, demonstrates the significant deliverability uptick we are now seeing in Tawke-20, we will go back to the drawing board and consider further enhancements to our current target of 200,000 barrels a day of production capacity by 2015," Mr. Mossavar-Rahmani said. Last month the Company announced that it had met its previous goal of delivering 100,000 barrels a day from the Tawke field following 72 hours of well and facility tests.
The Tawke-17 well, the deepest drilled by the Company in the Tawke field, encountered several Triassic zones that proved either tight or water bearing. Two additional identified reservoir intervals in the Upper Jurassic remain to be perforated and tested."
Tony Hayward, Chief Executive of Genel Energy, said:
"Today's news reinforces the extremely positive first half of 2013 that Genel has had with the drill bit, with the company having three new discoveries in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the space of three months. We look forward to working with DNO to determine the full extent of the new discovery."
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Genel_Energy_ ... 013ad.aspx
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Tue Jun 11, 2013 9:54 pm
Bar raised for Kurdish oil estimates
First posted (in the wrong place) by Aslan » Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:18 pm
First posted (in the wrong place) by Aslan » Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:18 pm
OSLO, Norway, June 11 (UPI) -- Norwegian oil and gas company DNO International said testing at fields in northern Iraq may indicate oil reserves are near the 1 billion barrel mark.
DNO said it tested its Tawke-17 well at a rate of 1,500 barrels of oil per day and its Tawke-20 well at an average rate of 8,000 bpd.
DNO Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said testing was ongoing at both sites. Preliminary results were encouraging, he said Tuesday.
"We are very pleased that initial Tawke-17 results are in line with the company's pre-drill estimates," he said in a statement. "This discovery ... likely bumps recoverable reserves on the Tawke license to the 1 billion barrel mark."
DNO has a majority stake in the Tawke field in the Kurdish region of Iraq alongside Turkish energy company Genel Energy and the Kurdistan regional government.
The semiautonomous Kurdish government gave Genel permission in January to export crude oil to Turkey by road shipments. Genel is working to convert a natural gas pipeline to facilitate additional oil deliveries.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the region last weekend to try to settle protracted political conflicts with the KRG. Export restrictions had been in place as a sign of growing frustration with the central Iraqi government over oil laws in the country.
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:27 pm
Reuters
No deal so far on Iraq, Kurdistan oil payments
No agreement has been reached between Iraq and Kurdistan on payments to oil companies working in the autonomous region despite a meeting this week between Baghdad and Kurdish leaders, Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Wednesday.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited Kurdistan on Sunday for talks with Kurdish officials in a symbolic step to ending their long-running feud over oil and land, but there was little concrete progress.
Kurdistan says it is owed more than 4 trillion Iraqi dinars, or $3.5 billion by Baghdad to cover the costs accumulated by oil companies operating there, but the central government rejects those contracts as illegal.
"No deal has been reached. We have not discussed this issue during our visit to the region," Shahristani told reporters on the sidelines of an energy presentation.
The payment dispute is part of wider disagreements over who controls the world's fourth-largest oil reserves. Baghdad says the central government has the exclusive right to decide on oil development, but Kurdistan says the constitution allows it to sign its own oil contracts.
Crude from Kurdistan used to be shipped to world markets through a Baghdad-controlled pipeline to Turkey, but exports via that channel dried up last year as result of the payment row with the central government.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/ ... 9M20130612
No deal so far on Iraq, Kurdistan oil payments
No agreement has been reached between Iraq and Kurdistan on payments to oil companies working in the autonomous region despite a meeting this week between Baghdad and Kurdish leaders, Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Wednesday.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited Kurdistan on Sunday for talks with Kurdish officials in a symbolic step to ending their long-running feud over oil and land, but there was little concrete progress.
Kurdistan says it is owed more than 4 trillion Iraqi dinars, or $3.5 billion by Baghdad to cover the costs accumulated by oil companies operating there, but the central government rejects those contracts as illegal.
"No deal has been reached. We have not discussed this issue during our visit to the region," Shahristani told reporters on the sidelines of an energy presentation.
The payment dispute is part of wider disagreements over who controls the world's fourth-largest oil reserves. Baghdad says the central government has the exclusive right to decide on oil development, but Kurdistan says the constitution allows it to sign its own oil contracts.
Crude from Kurdistan used to be shipped to world markets through a Baghdad-controlled pipeline to Turkey, but exports via that channel dried up last year as result of the payment row with the central government.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/ ... 9M20130612
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:49 am
The dispute between Kurdistan and Iraq over oil must soon lead to a totally independent
KURDISTAN
KURDISTAN
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Mon Jun 17, 2013 5:23 pm
Chevron signs Iraq Kurd oil deal
Originally posted in the wrong place by LAZY Aslan » Mon Jun 17, 2013 4:55 pm
BAGHDAD, June 17 – US energy giant Chevron has signed another oil exploration deal in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, it said on Monday, one of several contracts between Kurds and foreign energy firms that have enraged Baghdad.
The contract to explore the Qara Dagh field, in the south of the three-province region, is Chevron’s third with Kurdish officials, who have signed a swathe of contracts with international oil companies to boost exploration and production of energy.
A worker is seen at the Tawke oil refinery near the village of Zacho in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan on May 31, 2009. US energy giant Chevron has signed another oil exploration deal in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, it said, one of several contracts between Kurds and foreign energy firms that have enraged Baghdad
Iraq’s central government, however, has slammed the deals as illegal on the grounds that they were not approved by the federal oil ministry, and last year barred Chevron from working in non-Kurdish parts of the country.
“Chevron will acquire an interest in and operatorship of the Qara Dagh block production sharing contract from the Kurdistan regional government,” the company said in a statement issued from the Kurdish
regional capital Arbil.
The block lies southeast of Arbil and is about 860 square kilometres (332 square miles) in total area, it said.
The American energy giant was awarded the exploration deal in January, its third in Iraqi Kurdistan after acquiring two others in July 2012.
The spat over oil contracts is one of a string between Baghdad and Arbil. Diplomats and analysts say the unresolved rows are among the biggest threats to Iraq’s long-term stability.
Originally posted in the wrong place by LAZY Aslan » Mon Jun 17, 2013 4:55 pm
BAGHDAD, June 17 – US energy giant Chevron has signed another oil exploration deal in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, it said on Monday, one of several contracts between Kurds and foreign energy firms that have enraged Baghdad.
The contract to explore the Qara Dagh field, in the south of the three-province region, is Chevron’s third with Kurdish officials, who have signed a swathe of contracts with international oil companies to boost exploration and production of energy.
A worker is seen at the Tawke oil refinery near the village of Zacho in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan on May 31, 2009. US energy giant Chevron has signed another oil exploration deal in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, it said, one of several contracts between Kurds and foreign energy firms that have enraged Baghdad
Iraq’s central government, however, has slammed the deals as illegal on the grounds that they were not approved by the federal oil ministry, and last year barred Chevron from working in non-Kurdish parts of the country.
“Chevron will acquire an interest in and operatorship of the Qara Dagh block production sharing contract from the Kurdistan regional government,” the company said in a statement issued from the Kurdish
regional capital Arbil.
The block lies southeast of Arbil and is about 860 square kilometres (332 square miles) in total area, it said.
The American energy giant was awarded the exploration deal in January, its third in Iraqi Kurdistan after acquiring two others in July 2012.
The spat over oil contracts is one of a string between Baghdad and Arbil. Diplomats and analysts say the unresolved rows are among the biggest threats to Iraq’s long-term stability.
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:32 pm
Oil Voice
Oryx Petroleum Corporation Limited announces spudding of AAS-1 exploration well in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Oryx Petroleum Corporation Limited (TSX: OXC) announces that on June 10, 2013 the Sakson Hilong 10 rig (2000 HP) spudded the AAS-1 well in the Hawler license area in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The AAS-1 well is targeting the Ain Al Safra prospect which is estimated to contain 225 MMbbl in unrisked gross (100%) prospective oil resources (risked: 44 MMbbl) based on evaluations as of March 31, 2013 made by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc., an independent oil and gas consulting firm providing reserve and resource reports to the worldwide petroleum industry. The AAS-1 well is targeting the deeper light oil potential in the lower Jurassic and Triassic and heavy oil potential in the Cretaceous and is expected to reach total depth of approximately 4,220 metres in the fourth quarter of 2013.
The AAS-1 well is the third exploration well spud in the Hawler license area following the successful DD-2 exploration well targeting the Demir Dagh prospect which was spud in July 2012 and completed testing in March 2013 and the ZEG-1 exploration well targeting the Zey Gawra prospect which was spud in late April 2013 and is expected to reach total depth late in the third quarter of 2013. Oryx Petroleum has a 65% participating and working interest in and is the operator of the Hawler license area.
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Oryx_Petroleu ... a605f.aspx
Oryx Petroleum Corporation Limited announces spudding of AAS-1 exploration well in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Oryx Petroleum Corporation Limited (TSX: OXC) announces that on June 10, 2013 the Sakson Hilong 10 rig (2000 HP) spudded the AAS-1 well in the Hawler license area in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The AAS-1 well is targeting the Ain Al Safra prospect which is estimated to contain 225 MMbbl in unrisked gross (100%) prospective oil resources (risked: 44 MMbbl) based on evaluations as of March 31, 2013 made by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc., an independent oil and gas consulting firm providing reserve and resource reports to the worldwide petroleum industry. The AAS-1 well is targeting the deeper light oil potential in the lower Jurassic and Triassic and heavy oil potential in the Cretaceous and is expected to reach total depth of approximately 4,220 metres in the fourth quarter of 2013.
The AAS-1 well is the third exploration well spud in the Hawler license area following the successful DD-2 exploration well targeting the Demir Dagh prospect which was spud in July 2012 and completed testing in March 2013 and the ZEG-1 exploration well targeting the Zey Gawra prospect which was spud in late April 2013 and is expected to reach total depth late in the third quarter of 2013. Oryx Petroleum has a 65% participating and working interest in and is the operator of the Hawler license area.
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Oryx_Petroleu ... a605f.aspx
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:41 am
First posted by Aslan » Tue Jun 18, 2013 5:42 pm
viewtopic.php?f=28&p=99222#p99222
viewtopic.php?f=28&p=99222#p99222
Aslan wrote:Oryx Petroleum spuds Kurdistan probe
Canada’s Oryx Petroleum has spudded a third exploration probe on its Hawler licence in Iraqi Kurdistan, targeting the Ain Al Safra oil prospect.
The Calgary-based explorer said that the AAS-1 probe qould be drilled by the Sakson Hilong 10 rig to a total depth of around 4220 metres between now and the fourth quarter.
It is aiming to tap deeper light oil potential in the lower Jurassic and Triassic and heavy oil potential in the Cretaceous.
The Ain Al Safra prospect is estimated to contain risked prospective potential of 44 million barrels of oil, or unrisked potential of 225 million barrels, based on evaluations by Netherland, Sewell & Associates.
Formed in 2010 by former bosses of Addax Petroleum, west Africa and Middle East-focused Oryx Petroleum operates the Hawler licence on a 65% interest.
The Kurdistan Regional Government holds a 20% interest in Hawler and Korea National Oil Corporation the remaining 15%.
YAY CANADA
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:12 am
Oil Voice
Gulf Keystone announce the commencement of the Company's drilling campaign at the Shaikan field
Gulf Keystone, a leading independent E&P operator in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, is pleased to announce the commencement of the Company's drilling campaign to explore deeper, yet untested horizons of the world class discovery at the Shaikan field, which the Company operates.
Shaikan-7 to target significant exploration upside
Shaikan-7, the first deep exploration well on the Shaikan block, is targeting the mid to lower Triassic and, potentially, Permian horizons, spudded late on Sunday 16 June 2013. The well is being drilled with the Weatherford Rig 319 (3000HP) close to the crest of the Shaikan structure, approximately 1 km east of the Shaikan-1 discovery well.
Shaikan-7 is being drilled to the lower Triassic to evaluate the potential for significant quantities of light oil and identify commerciality of the deeper Triassic reservoir. The well is then expected to penetrate the Permian, the deepest undrilled horizon to date on the Shaikan structure.
This vertical well is planned to reach a total depth below 4,500m in the Permian and the drilling is expected to take about 9 months.
Commenting on today's announcement, John Gerstenlauer, Chief Operating Officer, said:
"As we are about to commence implementation of our Field Development Plan for the Shaikan discovery and start Jurassic production from the newly constructed Shaikan production facility, the spudding of our first deep exploration well adds a new and exciting dimension to Gulf Keystone's work programme in 2013. With Shaikan-7, we hope to confirm our expectations of major reservoirs beneath the deepest horizon drilled to date and add to what is already recognised as one of the world's largest onshore conventional oil & gas developments."
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Gulf_Keystone ... a013c.aspx
Gulf Keystone announce the commencement of the Company's drilling campaign at the Shaikan field
Gulf Keystone, a leading independent E&P operator in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, is pleased to announce the commencement of the Company's drilling campaign to explore deeper, yet untested horizons of the world class discovery at the Shaikan field, which the Company operates.
Shaikan-7 to target significant exploration upside
Shaikan-7, the first deep exploration well on the Shaikan block, is targeting the mid to lower Triassic and, potentially, Permian horizons, spudded late on Sunday 16 June 2013. The well is being drilled with the Weatherford Rig 319 (3000HP) close to the crest of the Shaikan structure, approximately 1 km east of the Shaikan-1 discovery well.
Shaikan-7 is being drilled to the lower Triassic to evaluate the potential for significant quantities of light oil and identify commerciality of the deeper Triassic reservoir. The well is then expected to penetrate the Permian, the deepest undrilled horizon to date on the Shaikan structure.
This vertical well is planned to reach a total depth below 4,500m in the Permian and the drilling is expected to take about 9 months.
Commenting on today's announcement, John Gerstenlauer, Chief Operating Officer, said:
"As we are about to commence implementation of our Field Development Plan for the Shaikan discovery and start Jurassic production from the newly constructed Shaikan production facility, the spudding of our first deep exploration well adds a new and exciting dimension to Gulf Keystone's work programme in 2013. With Shaikan-7, we hope to confirm our expectations of major reservoirs beneath the deepest horizon drilled to date and add to what is already recognised as one of the world's largest onshore conventional oil & gas developments."
http://www.oilvoice.com/n/Gulf_Keystone ... a013c.aspx
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:48 pm
First posted by Aslan » Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:07 pm
Oil drilling under way in Iraqi Kurdistan
LONDON, June 19 (UPI) -- An oil company working in northern Iraq said Wednesday it was looking to confirm the region may be one of the best in the world in terms of resource potential.
British energy company Gulf Keystone Petroleum said it started operations for the Shaikan-7 exploration well in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. The company said Shaikan-7 is its first deep exploration well, targeting natural reserves more than 2.5 miles underground.
Drilling is expected to take nine months.
"With Shaikan-7, we hope to confirm our expectations of major reservoirs beneath the deepest horizon drilled to date and add to what is already recognized as one of the world's largest onshore conventional oil and gas developments," Chief Executive Officer John Gerstenlauer said in a statement.
The company said the Shaikan oil discovery could hold as much as 10.5 billion barrels of oil. It expects to reach a full-scale production level of 150,000 barrels per day by 2015.
The central and Kurdish governments in Iraq are at odds over legal issues related to oil. As a whole, the International Energy Agency said Iraq could be producing 6.1 million bpd by 2020.
Iraqi Kurdistan gives Turkish company six oil exploration blocks
The report, co-published by The Oil & Gas Year and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is the first official confirmation of the deal. It said a company described only as "a Turkish entity" was given stakes in the Choman, Hindren, Arbat, Pulkhana, Jabal Kand and Khalakan blocks.
Resource-hungry Turkey and neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan, rich in hydrocarbons, have been negotiating on energy since last year. However, the central government insists it has the sole authority to sign energy deals.
A Turkish Energy Ministry official declined to comment on the report published by Istanbul-based The Oil & Gas Year. A source at state company Turkiye Petrolleri (TPAO), Turkey's main oil exploration company, denied his company won the licences.
The Turkish entity will have 80 percent stakes in the Choman, Hindren and Arbat blocks, the report said.
Choman and Hindren are contiguous sections on the border with Iran, and Arbat is in the southeast near the city of Sulaymaniyah and has had some seismic work completed.
The entity will hold a 40 percent stake in Pulkhana in the south, where eight wells have been drilled, and Jabal Kand in the west. It is expected to be given a 40 percent stake in the Khalakan block in the east of Iraqi Kurdistan, the report said.
The ease of extraction and favourable production-sharing terms have attracted majors such Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp and Total SA to the Kurdistan region, despite threats of blacklisting from Baghdad, which considers the KRG contracts illegal.
The central government's refusal to pay for exports from the north has sharply reduced shipments, which are currently made overland by truck to Turkey.
Resolution of the dispute between the regional capital Arbil and Baghdad is essential if the Kurdish region is to reach its export goal of more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in by 2015.
Total acquires 80% stake in Kurdistan block
France's oil major Total has acquired an 80% stake in an exploration block in Iraq's Kurdistan, in a move that reinforces the company's position in the semi-autonomous region where crude reserves are plentiful, Reuters has reported. According to the deal, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will own the remaining 20%. "This participation in an operated exploration block was contemplated at the time Total made its move in Kurdistan during the summer 2012," Total said.
Petroceltic shares ‘significantly undervalued’ ahead of Kurdistan drilling
Petroceltic (LON:PCI) shares are significantly undervalued in the run up to potentially significant drilling in Kurdistan, says Dublin based broker Davy.
Drilling is expected to start on the Hess operated Shakrok exploration well in July.
Shakrok could potentially contain a hefty 650mln barrels of oil and, with a 20% stake in the exploration venture, a success would be very significant for Petroceltic.
According to Davy analyst Job Langroek, Petroceltic shares are currently trading at a 73% discount to the broker’s valuation, and the Kurdistan drilling presents a near-term catalyst to close at least some of this gap. Accounting for the recent merger with Melrose and the subsequent share reorganisation Davy values the new Petroceltic as a whole at 530p per share; it currently trades at 145p.
The Kurdistan assets contribute just 20p of Davy’s current valuation, because they are viewed on a highly discounted ‘pre-drill’ basis. But, Langbroek says, by applying a ‘more proactive’ valuation – of between US$1-3 per barrel, which is derived from corporate deals that have valued ‘discovered’ barrels in the region – implies the Kurdistan assets could be worth almost 60p a share. As such, Davy sees the start of drilling in Kurdistan as a key event.
“The start-up of drilling creates the opportunity to unwind pre-drill risk. For instance, the largest target on the Shakrok block (104m bbls net) could justify the whole of Kurdistan pre-drill valuation alone. “Hence, our belief that the start-up of drilling in Kurdistan should act as catalyst to closing the value gap.” It is expected that Hess will, in the next six months, also move on to drill a well on the Dinarte block, which is the other asset in the venture.
The Hess-Petroceltic project is not the only drill programme getting underway in Kurdistan this summer, indeed several recent entrants are now getting boots on the ground, and the semi-autonomous region is expected to be particularly busy with several drilling projects being carried out over the coming months. Importantly, export infrastructure projects, to build a pipeline through the north into Turkey, are at an advanced stage of development and it is thought that work could start on a second export pipeline soon.
The first pipeline will allow upwards of 150,000 barrels of oil per day to be exported from the semi-autonomous region, and it will dramatically enhance the commercial development of the large oil discoveries that are already known to exist in Kurdistan. Only a few fields have thus far begun production, and those that are producing are trucking oil for export. By opening up a material and sustainable export route, the key infrastructure project promises to enhance the region’s appeal to the wider oil industry. Indeed, in recent days, America's Chevron and France’s Total bolstered respective positions in the region.
Chevron marked up its third asset in Iraq’s semi-autonomous region, acquiring the right to explore the Qara Dagh field. Elsewhere, Total has picked up the Baranan block, which was relinquished by Talisman Energy last year. It is reported that Chevron will start drilling on its Sarta-2 well later this week and another well, Rovi-2, will start in July.
Anglo-Turkish firm Genel (LON:GENL) continues to develop its operations at the Taq Taq and Tawke fields, and it has four high impact wells in the schedule for 2013.
Afren’s (LON:AFR) drill programme, which confirmed a discovery in the Simrit 2 well in March, will continue with the drilling of Simrit-3 and two wells on the Maqlub prospect.
And Gulf Keystone (LON:GKP), one of the first movers in Kurdistan, confirmed on Wednesday that work has begun on the Shaikan-7 well, its first ‘deep’ well which is due to go down as far as 4,500 metres in search of light oil in Triassic reservoirs.
Oil drilling under way in Iraqi Kurdistan
LONDON, June 19 (UPI) -- An oil company working in northern Iraq said Wednesday it was looking to confirm the region may be one of the best in the world in terms of resource potential.
British energy company Gulf Keystone Petroleum said it started operations for the Shaikan-7 exploration well in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. The company said Shaikan-7 is its first deep exploration well, targeting natural reserves more than 2.5 miles underground.
Drilling is expected to take nine months.
"With Shaikan-7, we hope to confirm our expectations of major reservoirs beneath the deepest horizon drilled to date and add to what is already recognized as one of the world's largest onshore conventional oil and gas developments," Chief Executive Officer John Gerstenlauer said in a statement.
The company said the Shaikan oil discovery could hold as much as 10.5 billion barrels of oil. It expects to reach a full-scale production level of 150,000 barrels per day by 2015.
The central and Kurdish governments in Iraq are at odds over legal issues related to oil. As a whole, the International Energy Agency said Iraq could be producing 6.1 million bpd by 2020.
Iraqi Kurdistan gives Turkish company six oil exploration blocks
The report, co-published by The Oil & Gas Year and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is the first official confirmation of the deal. It said a company described only as "a Turkish entity" was given stakes in the Choman, Hindren, Arbat, Pulkhana, Jabal Kand and Khalakan blocks.
Resource-hungry Turkey and neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan, rich in hydrocarbons, have been negotiating on energy since last year. However, the central government insists it has the sole authority to sign energy deals.
A Turkish Energy Ministry official declined to comment on the report published by Istanbul-based The Oil & Gas Year. A source at state company Turkiye Petrolleri (TPAO), Turkey's main oil exploration company, denied his company won the licences.
The Turkish entity will have 80 percent stakes in the Choman, Hindren and Arbat blocks, the report said.
Choman and Hindren are contiguous sections on the border with Iran, and Arbat is in the southeast near the city of Sulaymaniyah and has had some seismic work completed.
The entity will hold a 40 percent stake in Pulkhana in the south, where eight wells have been drilled, and Jabal Kand in the west. It is expected to be given a 40 percent stake in the Khalakan block in the east of Iraqi Kurdistan, the report said.
The ease of extraction and favourable production-sharing terms have attracted majors such Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp and Total SA to the Kurdistan region, despite threats of blacklisting from Baghdad, which considers the KRG contracts illegal.
The central government's refusal to pay for exports from the north has sharply reduced shipments, which are currently made overland by truck to Turkey.
Resolution of the dispute between the regional capital Arbil and Baghdad is essential if the Kurdish region is to reach its export goal of more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in by 2015.
Total acquires 80% stake in Kurdistan block
France's oil major Total has acquired an 80% stake in an exploration block in Iraq's Kurdistan, in a move that reinforces the company's position in the semi-autonomous region where crude reserves are plentiful, Reuters has reported. According to the deal, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will own the remaining 20%. "This participation in an operated exploration block was contemplated at the time Total made its move in Kurdistan during the summer 2012," Total said.
Petroceltic shares ‘significantly undervalued’ ahead of Kurdistan drilling
Petroceltic (LON:PCI) shares are significantly undervalued in the run up to potentially significant drilling in Kurdistan, says Dublin based broker Davy.
Drilling is expected to start on the Hess operated Shakrok exploration well in July.
Shakrok could potentially contain a hefty 650mln barrels of oil and, with a 20% stake in the exploration venture, a success would be very significant for Petroceltic.
According to Davy analyst Job Langroek, Petroceltic shares are currently trading at a 73% discount to the broker’s valuation, and the Kurdistan drilling presents a near-term catalyst to close at least some of this gap. Accounting for the recent merger with Melrose and the subsequent share reorganisation Davy values the new Petroceltic as a whole at 530p per share; it currently trades at 145p.
The Kurdistan assets contribute just 20p of Davy’s current valuation, because they are viewed on a highly discounted ‘pre-drill’ basis. But, Langbroek says, by applying a ‘more proactive’ valuation – of between US$1-3 per barrel, which is derived from corporate deals that have valued ‘discovered’ barrels in the region – implies the Kurdistan assets could be worth almost 60p a share. As such, Davy sees the start of drilling in Kurdistan as a key event.
“The start-up of drilling creates the opportunity to unwind pre-drill risk. For instance, the largest target on the Shakrok block (104m bbls net) could justify the whole of Kurdistan pre-drill valuation alone. “Hence, our belief that the start-up of drilling in Kurdistan should act as catalyst to closing the value gap.” It is expected that Hess will, in the next six months, also move on to drill a well on the Dinarte block, which is the other asset in the venture.
The Hess-Petroceltic project is not the only drill programme getting underway in Kurdistan this summer, indeed several recent entrants are now getting boots on the ground, and the semi-autonomous region is expected to be particularly busy with several drilling projects being carried out over the coming months. Importantly, export infrastructure projects, to build a pipeline through the north into Turkey, are at an advanced stage of development and it is thought that work could start on a second export pipeline soon.
The first pipeline will allow upwards of 150,000 barrels of oil per day to be exported from the semi-autonomous region, and it will dramatically enhance the commercial development of the large oil discoveries that are already known to exist in Kurdistan. Only a few fields have thus far begun production, and those that are producing are trucking oil for export. By opening up a material and sustainable export route, the key infrastructure project promises to enhance the region’s appeal to the wider oil industry. Indeed, in recent days, America's Chevron and France’s Total bolstered respective positions in the region.
Chevron marked up its third asset in Iraq’s semi-autonomous region, acquiring the right to explore the Qara Dagh field. Elsewhere, Total has picked up the Baranan block, which was relinquished by Talisman Energy last year. It is reported that Chevron will start drilling on its Sarta-2 well later this week and another well, Rovi-2, will start in July.
Anglo-Turkish firm Genel (LON:GENL) continues to develop its operations at the Taq Taq and Tawke fields, and it has four high impact wells in the schedule for 2013.
Afren’s (LON:AFR) drill programme, which confirmed a discovery in the Simrit 2 well in March, will continue with the drilling of Simrit-3 and two wells on the Maqlub prospect.
And Gulf Keystone (LON:GKP), one of the first movers in Kurdistan, confirmed on Wednesday that work has begun on the Shaikan-7 well, its first ‘deep’ well which is due to go down as far as 4,500 metres in search of light oil in Triassic reservoirs.
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:50 pm
First posted by Aslan » Wed Jun 19, 2013 5:10 pm
Iraqi Kurds say new oil pipeline to Turkey to start soon
* Pipeline capacity to increase to 1 mln bpd by 2015-Hawrami
* Sales via federal pipeline depend on permanent solution
* Natural gas exports to Turkey seen by 2016
By Julia Payne and Peg Mackey
LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan will start a new oil pipeline to Turkey within months, its energy minister said, increasing the autonomous region's control over its resources in a dispute with Baghdad and raising its exports to world markets.
In a move that will provoke Baghdad, the Kurdish regional government will complete the pipeline by the end of September with an initial capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), its energy minister, Ashti Hawrami, told a conference in London on Wednesday.
Oil is at the heart of the dispute between the Arab-led central government and the ethnic Kurdish-run northern enclave over control of oilfields, territory and crude revenues shared between the two regions.
Kurdistan has stopped exporting through the central government-controlled pipeline, which has stranded its oil output. It has been able to truck only small amounts to Turkey on road tankers.
"Nowhere in the world does 1 million barrels per day remain stranded, so I'm confident that Kurdistan's exports via pipeline will be a reality very soon," Hawrami said.
Kurdistan's oil production capacity is now at 300,000 bpd and is rising rapidly to 400,000 bpd by the end of this year, most of it destined for export, he added.
Sales of Kurdish oil via the central government through Iraq's federal pipeline system also could resume but that will depend on a permanent resolution of the political and constitutional issues between Arbil and Baghdad, Hawrami said.
No agreement has been reached so far between Iraq and Kurdistan on payments to oil companies working in the region, despite a meeting earlier in June between leaders on both sides.
Hawrami stressed the benefits of having a direct pipeline.
"The new export infrastructure will be a cost-effective and secure solution that will enable more of Iraq's oil and gas to reach the international market, which will allow all the citizens of Iraq to benefit from increased revenue," he said.
With the further construction of new pumping stations, the pipeline would be able to export more than 1 million bpd by the end of 2015 and 2 million bpd by 2019, Hawrami said.
Genel Energy said in February it expected to export oil by pipeline from its fields in Iraqi Kurdistan by 2014.
Turkish sources said in April that the KRG was on track to finish the pipeline in the third quarter.
Turkey has given the green light to the plan, under which Kurdish oil will enter the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline at the Fishkhabur pumping station near the Turkish border, from where it will flow directly to Turkey's southern port of Ceyhan for shipping to international markets, the sources said.
The prime ministers of Iraq and the KRG met last week in Arbil, the Kurdish capital, and agreed to set up committees to focus on Iraq's oil and gas law and revenue-sharing legislation, but made little progress on substantive issues.
"There was no discussion about oil payments ... Our dispute is constitutional, we are looking at the big picture," Hawrami said.
The KRG will also seek to export natural gas to Turkey and elsewhere in Europe once domestic needs are met, Hawrami said.
"By 2016, I believe, we will have first exports of gas for the Turkish grid," he said.
Iraqi Kurds say new oil pipeline to Turkey to start soon
* Pipeline capacity to increase to 1 mln bpd by 2015-Hawrami
* Sales via federal pipeline depend on permanent solution
* Natural gas exports to Turkey seen by 2016
By Julia Payne and Peg Mackey
LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan will start a new oil pipeline to Turkey within months, its energy minister said, increasing the autonomous region's control over its resources in a dispute with Baghdad and raising its exports to world markets.
In a move that will provoke Baghdad, the Kurdish regional government will complete the pipeline by the end of September with an initial capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), its energy minister, Ashti Hawrami, told a conference in London on Wednesday.
Oil is at the heart of the dispute between the Arab-led central government and the ethnic Kurdish-run northern enclave over control of oilfields, territory and crude revenues shared between the two regions.
Kurdistan has stopped exporting through the central government-controlled pipeline, which has stranded its oil output. It has been able to truck only small amounts to Turkey on road tankers.
"Nowhere in the world does 1 million barrels per day remain stranded, so I'm confident that Kurdistan's exports via pipeline will be a reality very soon," Hawrami said.
Kurdistan's oil production capacity is now at 300,000 bpd and is rising rapidly to 400,000 bpd by the end of this year, most of it destined for export, he added.
Sales of Kurdish oil via the central government through Iraq's federal pipeline system also could resume but that will depend on a permanent resolution of the political and constitutional issues between Arbil and Baghdad, Hawrami said.
No agreement has been reached so far between Iraq and Kurdistan on payments to oil companies working in the region, despite a meeting earlier in June between leaders on both sides.
Hawrami stressed the benefits of having a direct pipeline.
"The new export infrastructure will be a cost-effective and secure solution that will enable more of Iraq's oil and gas to reach the international market, which will allow all the citizens of Iraq to benefit from increased revenue," he said.
With the further construction of new pumping stations, the pipeline would be able to export more than 1 million bpd by the end of 2015 and 2 million bpd by 2019, Hawrami said.
Genel Energy said in February it expected to export oil by pipeline from its fields in Iraqi Kurdistan by 2014.
Turkish sources said in April that the KRG was on track to finish the pipeline in the third quarter.
Turkey has given the green light to the plan, under which Kurdish oil will enter the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline at the Fishkhabur pumping station near the Turkish border, from where it will flow directly to Turkey's southern port of Ceyhan for shipping to international markets, the sources said.
The prime ministers of Iraq and the KRG met last week in Arbil, the Kurdish capital, and agreed to set up committees to focus on Iraq's oil and gas law and revenue-sharing legislation, but made little progress on substantive issues.
"There was no discussion about oil payments ... Our dispute is constitutional, we are looking at the big picture," Hawrami said.
The KRG will also seek to export natural gas to Turkey and elsewhere in Europe once domestic needs are met, Hawrami said.
"By 2016, I believe, we will have first exports of gas for the Turkish grid," he said.
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:27 pm
It would be wonderful if someone from this forum could attend the Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas conference and share some of the information on this site 
Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas, now in its 3rd year and supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government, is established as the gateway to oil and gas business in the Region.
The Conference offers a unique platform for over 800 leaders from the global oil and gas industry and the Kurdistan and Iraqi Governments, to discuss future opportunities and strategies for a region described as the exploration capital of the world.
Why Attend Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas 2013?
The only oil and gas event in Kurdistan supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government
Be part of the largest gathering on Kurdistan’s oil and gas sector
Hear insights from Government representatives and operators in Kurdistan on the future of the oil and gas industry
Network with the industry leaders and Government representatives driving the Iraqi oil and gas market forward
Develop your company’s position in the heart of one of Iraq’s most active oil and gas regions
Workshops 1 December 2013
Workshop A: Legal
This full day interactive Workshop will provide new investors the opportunity to learn about the laws and regulations for encouraging partnerships to expedite building the industry. Develop a successful business strategy to establish your position in the heart of one of Iraq’s most active oil and gas regions and maximize your potential to discover new opportunities and challenges facing the industry from the experts in the sector.
Worksop B: Technology & Logistics
New for this year, Workshop B will focus on the Technical and Logistical elements of the oil and gas industry in Kurdistan-Iraq. The full day workshop will discuss the deployment of integrated technical solutions, key technologies and solutions for oil and gas logistics. Learn about domestic transport, project cargo, warehouse management, project construction requirements and human resources and local recruitment and training for the oil and gas industry. Foster strong partnerships and meet top-tier EPC contractors operating in Iraq and learn about their contractual and procurement models to increase your opportunity to win business in Kurdistan.
http://www.cwckiog.com/
Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas, now in its 3rd year and supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government, is established as the gateway to oil and gas business in the Region.
The Conference offers a unique platform for over 800 leaders from the global oil and gas industry and the Kurdistan and Iraqi Governments, to discuss future opportunities and strategies for a region described as the exploration capital of the world.
Why Attend Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas 2013?
The only oil and gas event in Kurdistan supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government
Be part of the largest gathering on Kurdistan’s oil and gas sector
Hear insights from Government representatives and operators in Kurdistan on the future of the oil and gas industry
Network with the industry leaders and Government representatives driving the Iraqi oil and gas market forward
Develop your company’s position in the heart of one of Iraq’s most active oil and gas regions
Workshops 1 December 2013
Workshop A: Legal
This full day interactive Workshop will provide new investors the opportunity to learn about the laws and regulations for encouraging partnerships to expedite building the industry. Develop a successful business strategy to establish your position in the heart of one of Iraq’s most active oil and gas regions and maximize your potential to discover new opportunities and challenges facing the industry from the experts in the sector.
Worksop B: Technology & Logistics
New for this year, Workshop B will focus on the Technical and Logistical elements of the oil and gas industry in Kurdistan-Iraq. The full day workshop will discuss the deployment of integrated technical solutions, key technologies and solutions for oil and gas logistics. Learn about domestic transport, project cargo, warehouse management, project construction requirements and human resources and local recruitment and training for the oil and gas industry. Foster strong partnerships and meet top-tier EPC contractors operating in Iraq and learn about their contractual and procurement models to increase your opportunity to win business in Kurdistan.
http://www.cwckiog.com/
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Anthea - Shaswar
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Re: Kurdistan Oil & Gas Development
Author: Anthea » Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:56 pm
Learn more about the oil industry by reading the reports - I am starting to find the oil industry very interesting 
Marathon Oil
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
FORM 10-K
Annual report pursuant to section 13 and 15(d)
Filing Date:
2013-02-22
Period of Report:
2012-12-31
http://pdf.secdatabase.com/1584/0000101 ... 000006.pdf
Marathon Oil
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
FORM 10-K
Annual report pursuant to section 13 and 15(d)
Filing Date:
2013-02-22
Period of Report:
2012-12-31
EXTRACT: Marathon Oil Corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is an international energy company engaged in exploration and production, oil sands mining and integrated gas with operations in the U.S., Angola, Canada, E.G., Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Libya, Norway, Poland and the U.K.
We are based in Houston, Texas with our corporate headquarters at 5555 San Felipe Street, Houston, Texas 77056-2723 and a telephone number of (713) 629-6600.
On June 30, 2011, the spin-off of Marathon's downstream business was completed, creating two independent energy companies: Marathon Oil and MPC. Marathon stockholders at the close of business on the record date of June 27, 2011 received one share of MPC common stock for every two shares of Marathon common stock held.
A private letter ruling received in June 2011 from the IRS affirmed the tax-free nature of the spin-off.
http://pdf.secdatabase.com/1584/0000101 ... 000006.pdf
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
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Anthea - Shaswar
- Donator
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- Highscores: 3
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