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Addax Petroleum and Turkish Genel Enerji
to Spend $120M on Kurdistan Oilfield Plans
21.3.2007 |
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March 21, 2007
Addax Petroleum Corp.,(AXC.T) a Toronto Stock
Exchange-listed oil company, and its Turkish joint
venture partner Genel Enerji A.S. will spend as much
as $120 million on exploring and developing an
onshore oilfield in Kurdistan region (Iraq) that
could produce 200,000 barrels a day of crude oil by
2009, a company official said Tuesday.
Addax and Genel Enerji, which have set up a 45:55
joint venture called Taq Taq Operating Co., or
TTOPCO, to operate in Kurdistan-Iraq, will complete
drilling of a third appraisal well in the Taq Taq
development area in the country's north by early
April, Addax asset manager Pradeep Kabra told Dow
Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a Dubai
conference. |
Kurdistan Oil |
The joint venture plans to drill another two wells
this year and to complete a 3D seismic survey
covering the Taq Taq development area, located
northwest of Kirkuk, and a 2D survey covering
additional exploration prospects, in the third
quarter, Kabra said at the 4th Mideast Upstream
conference.
Pending the final outcome of the appraisal campaign,
the companies will go ahead with the full field
development, which is expected to yield about
200,000 barrels a day of oil by 2009, Kabra added.
Test results for two appraisal wells already
completed recorded flows of 29,790 barrels a day and
26,550 barrels a day, according to TTOPCO's Web
site.
The joint venture company signed a revised
production sharing agreement, or PSA, with the
Kurdistan regional government in November. The move
followed the conclusion of the original PSA between
the Kurdish authorities and Genel Enerji in 2004.
Under the agreement, the Kurdistan regional
government has the option to take a 20% stake in
TTOPCO, Kabra said.
Iraq, holder of the world's third largest oil
reserves, is seeking investments into its ailing oil
infrastructure to boost output from the present 2
million barrels a day to at least pre-Iraq-Iran war
levels of 3.5 million barrels in the 1980s.
Poor maintenance and under-investment in the past 20
years, and frequent attacks on the country's oil
infrastructure since the country's invasion by the
U.S. in 2003 have left the sector in a desperate
state.
According to Iraq's new draft hydrocarbons law,
Kurdish authorities will have to review contracts
already signed with international oil companies and
are required to have the agreements approved by an
independent consultant appointed by the federal oil
and gas council, to be established by the draft law.
"It is reasonable to say that the existing contract
is within the scope of the constitution," Kabra
said.
Addax Petroleum Corp. | dowjones com
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