Iraq struck a deal with Russian energy giant Lukoil yesterday to develop one of the world’s biggest untapped oil fields as part of efforts by Baghdad to dramatically ramp up its crude output.
The agreement over the West Qurna-2 reservoir with Lukoil, which will share the project with Norwegian energy firm StatoilHydro, comes a day consortiums led by Shell and CNPC were awarded contracts.
Meanwhile, a joint bid by Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan’s Japex was yesterday awarded a contract to work on the Garraf oil field in southern Iraq, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said.
The pair had requested US$1.49 per barrel of oil extracted from the reservoir and projected output at 230,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). Petronas will take 60 percent, while Japex will take the remaining 40 percent.
The deals reached so far in the two-day auction promise to increase Iraq’s oil production by more than 4.2 million bpd in the coming years as the country seeks to become one of the world’s biggest energy producers and bring in much-needed revenue to rebuild its war-battered economy.
“We can announce that Lukoil has won the contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field,” al-Shahristani said at the oil ministry conference hall where the auction was being held.
Lukoil and StatoilHydro requested US$1.15 for each barrel extracted from the giant field and projected output of 1.8 million bpd. Lukoil will take 85 percent and StatoilHydro 15 percent.
West Qurna-2 is one of the world’s biggest undeveloped oil fields, with known reserves of 12.9 billion barrels. It lies west of the equally enormous Majnoon field, which was auctioned on Friday to Anglo-Dutch firm Shell and Petronas.
Shell and Petronas will receive US$1.39 per barrel of oil they extract from Majnoon, which has proven reserves of 12.6 billion barrels, and project that they will produce 1.8 million bpd.
China’s CNPC, meanwhile, led a group comprising Petronas and France’s Total on Friday to capture Halfaya, also in southern Iraq.
The trio requested US$1.40 per barrel and projected production of 535,000 bpd. The field has known reserves of 4.1 billion barrels.
No bids were received, however, to work on either the East Baghdad field, or the cluster of fields referred to jointly as Eastern Fields.
Analysts said companies were concerned by still-common violence in the areas close to Baghdad and in Diyala Province where the fields are situated.
Yesterday morning, Angolan firm Sonangol said it reached agreement with Baghdad over the Qaiyarah field after the company reduced its initial offer.
A day earlier, Iraq had rejected Sonangol’s per-barrel bid as too high.
Iraq relies massively on oil sales for its economic growth and government income. The country wants to boost oil production to 7 million bpd within six years from 2.5 million now. In the longer term, it is targeting 10 to 12 million bpd, making it a potential rival of Saudi Arabia.
EXPLOSION: A driver who was transporting waste material from the site was hit by a blunt object after an uncontrolled pressure release and thrown 6m from the truck Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday there was no damage to its facilities after an incident at its Arizona factory construction site where a waste disposal truck driver was transported to hospital. Firefighters responded to an explosion on Wednesday afternoon at the TSMC plant in Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported, citing the local fire department. Cesar Anguiano-Guitron, 41, was transporting waste material from the project site and stopped to inspect the tank when he was made aware of a potential problem, a police report seen by Bloomberg News showed. Following an “uncontrolled pressure release,” he was hit by a blunt
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which makes servers and laptop computers on a contract basis, yesterday said it expects artificial intelligence (AI) devices to bring explosive growth to Taiwan’s electronics industry, as AI applications are starting to run on edge devices such as AI PCs. Taiwanese electronics manufacturers such as chipmakers, component suppliers and hardware assemblers are likely to benefit from a rapid uptake of AI applications, Mike Yang (楊麒令), president of Quanta Cloud Technology Inc (雲達科技), a server manufacturing arm of Quanta, told reporters on the sidelines of a technology forum in Taipei yesterday. “I believe the growth potential is promising once
ASML Holding NV and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have ways to disable the world’s most sophisticated chipmaking machines in the event that China invades Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. Officials from the US government have privately expressed concerns to both their Dutch and Taiwanese counterparts about what happens if Chinese aggression escalates into an attack on the nation responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors, two of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ASML reassured officials about its ability to remotely disable the machines when the Dutch government met with the company
RETALIATION: Beijing is investigating Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan for dumping, following probes of its market, as well as tariff hikes on its imports The Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday said it had launched a dumping investigation into imports of an important engineering chemical from Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan. It would probe imports of polyoxymethylene copolymer, a thermoplastic used in many precision parts used in phones, auto parts and medical equipment, the Chinese commerce ministry said. The ministry is reviewing materials provided by six Chinese companies that applied for assistance on behalf of the industry on April 22, it said. The probe will target polyformaldehyde copolymer imported from suppliers in the EU, the US, Taiwan and Japan last year, and will assess any damage