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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

WorleyParsons Wins Rumaila Oilfield Contract

Posted on 13 December 2010. Tags: Australia, BP, CNPC, Rumaila, South Oil Company, WorleyParsons
WorleyParsons Wins Rumaila Oilfield Contract

Australian engineering contractor WorleyParsons (WOR.AU) has won a contract to carry out engineering and design work at BP’s giant Rumaila oilfield in southern Iraq.

Sources familiar with the deal said the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract was awarded to WorleyParsons by the consortium which includes Iraq’s state-run South Oil Company, BP and China National Petroleum, which jointly operate the Rumaila field.

WorleyParsons will carry out FEED work for the project, although the contract has yet to be approved officially by the Iraqi government, a sources told Dow Jones.

BP and CNPC, both of which signed a 20-year service contract in November last year with Baghdad to develop Rumaila, plan to increase production by 10 per cent this month from 1.06 million barrels a day.

The group has already started drilling at the field as they awarded earlier this year contracts worth up to $500 million to drill 49 wells. $15 billion is expected to be invested in the project over the 20-year duration of the contract.

The BP-led consortium has pledged to almost triple production at the field to 2.85 million barrels a day. BP holds a 38 per cent stake in the venture, while CNPC has 37 per cent and Iraq’s SOC holds the remaining 25 per cent.

The three contractors will receive a fixed fee of $US2 for each additional barrel of oil produced from Rumaila.

(Sources: Dow Jones, The Australian)

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Hermes Datacomms Wins BP Contract in Iraq

Posted on 28 June 2011. Tags: BP, Hermes

Hermes Datacommunications Middle East, a key specialist providing Wide Area Network communications to the upstream oil and gas industry has won a contract to continue providing VSAT communications to support BP’s operations in Iraq. Hermes will continue supporting degassing stations, rigs and static life support camps.

Included in this contract renewal is additional bandwidth to the South and North Rumaila sites to offer load sharing, whilst also providing full redundancy across the BP Iraq network. Hermes will be using a separate satellite provider, Yamal 200 to ensure complete independence from their existing link.

Kevin Thorley, CEO, Middle East says:

“We are delighted by the BP contract win. We believe this renewal demonstrates not only our ability to more than satisfy our customers’ needs but also highlights our strengths as a key player in Iraq, as well as the rest of the Middle East markets. We look forward to continuing a strong and fruitful relationship with BP.”

To facilitate this win, Hermes has further increased the Middle East team to include a dedicated Account Manager and technical team. This expansion includes the move of one of Hermes’ top Engineers from their Head office in the UK, Vincent Davies.

Davies says, “I am thrilled to join the emerging Middle East team and to contribute towards the continuing success of the BP account”.

Davies brings with him a wealth of international experience including three and a half years as Project Engineer, Algeria. He has worked on some very significant client accounts including Petrofac, KBR, BP and Weatherford.


BP's Iraq contract leads way as Petrofac reveals £1.3bn deals
Published Date: 01 July 2011
By Dominic Jeff
http://business.scotsman.com/business/BP39s-Iraq-contract-leads-way.6793976.jpg


ENERGY services group Petrofac said it has gained $2.1 billion (£1.3bn) in orders in the first six months of the year, including a contract with BP in Iraq announced this week.
The London-listed firm - which has a large operations base in Aberdeen and a training centre in Montrose - said in a trading update yesterday that it had a backlog of work of about $11.4bn, which it predicted would remain stable for the rest of the year.

Chief executive Ayman Asfari said: "We continue to deliver good operational performance across our portfolio of projects, including on the South Yoloten project in Turkmenistan, and we are well on course to deliver like-for-like net profit growth in 2011 of at least 15 per cent, in line with our previous guidance."

Petrofac's new one-year deal with BP is its second in Iraq and marks a further expansion in the war-torn oil producer. The $90 million inspection, maintenance and repair contract for the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq will be shared with a Chinese joint venture partner but will be led by Petrofac's offshore engineering and operations business and is worth $63m to the group.

Petrofac also announced that its long-standing chief financial officer, Keith Roberts, will retire from the group at the end of the year.

Roberts, 54, joined the firm in early 2002 and played a leading role in its 2005 flotation.

He will be replaced by Cable & Wireless Worldwide director Tim Weller.

Tony Shepard, analyst at Charles Stanley, said he was surprised by the change but added that Roberts was leaving the group in "excellent health".

"It has a strong order book which gives excellent revenue visibility and the balance sheet is strong," he said.

Despite being impressed by the figures, which suggest it could double its recurring 2010 earnings by 2015, Charles Stanley rated Petrofac a "hold" in the short term, noting that shares were already "up with events".

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Two bombs hit Iraq Rumaila oil pipelines-official

07 Oct 2011 20:16
Source: Reuters // Reuters

BASRA, Iraq, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Two bombs hit pipeline networks transporting crude from Iraq's Rumaila oilfield, a senior Iraqi oil ministry official said on Friday.

The impact on production from Rumaila was not immediately clear, but firefighters were working to put out blazes caused by the blasts, two sources said. (Reporting by Aref Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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You are here: Home » Security » Energy Sector » Explosions considered terrorism in Basra oil field
Explosions considered terrorism in Basra oil field

Smoke billows from the Zubair tank farm June 5, 2011, after a bomb exploded on a storage tank. (Source: Olive Group incident report)
By ALI ABU IRAQ, BEN LANDO AND STAFF of Iraq Oil Report
Published October 8, 2011
At least two explosions rocked areas in southern and south of the Rumaila oil field late Friday, cutting crude and increasing concerns over security, in an attack seemingly timed with the visit by the oil minister.

There were few details as of press time, with officials difficult to reach late evening on Friday, the one traditional day off in Iraq, and a general reluctance to discuss security issues in the oil sector as the country opens up to foreign investors.

Thus, there were conflictin...


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You are here: Home » Security » Energy Sector » Explosions considered terrorism in Basra oil field
Explosions considered terrorism in Basra oil field

Smoke billows from the Zubair tank farm June 5, 2011, after a bomb exploded on a storage tank. (Source: Olive Group incident report)
By ALI ABU IRAQ, BEN LANDO AND STAFF of Iraq Oil Report
Published October 8, 2011
At least two explosions rocked areas in southern and south of the Rumaila oil field late Friday, cutting crude and increasing concerns over security, in an attack seemingly timed with the visit by the oil minister.

There were few details as of press time, with officials difficult to reach late evening on Friday, the one traditional day off in Iraq, and a general reluctance to discuss security issues in the oil sector as the country opens up to foreign investors.

Thus, there were conflictin...

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Two bombs hit Iraq Rumaila oil pipelines-official


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BASRA, Iraq | Sat Oct 8, 2011 1:46am IST
Oct 7 (Reuters) - Two bombs hit pipeline networks transporting crude from Iraq's Rumaila oilfield, a senior Iraqi oil ministry official said on Friday.

The impact on production from Rumaila was not immediately clear, but firefighters were working to put out blazes caused by the blasts, two sources said. (Reporting by Aref Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Landmines hamper Iraq oil boom, delay investment

A policeman scans for landmines near the Rumaila oil field in Basra Province, 420 km (261 miles) southeast of Baghdad, May 10, 2010. REUTERS-Atef Hassan

RUMAILA, Iraq | Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:05am EST

(Reuters) - In Iraq's vast southern desert, red sandbags stretch along roadsides to warn of the danger from Saddam-era landmines that litter the prized Rumaila oilfield. White ones signal areas safe to walk or drive.

Now recovering from decades of conflict, Iraq may have 25 million landmines and millions of other unexploded bombs that are slowing development of some of the world's largest fields and one of Iraq's key cities, the southern oil hub Basra.

"Landmines and (unexploded) war remnants are the silent enemy," said Ali al-Maliki, head of the municipal security committee in Basra, where leftover ordnance is slowing the construction of bridges, homes and commercial districts.

The red- and white-painted sandbags seem a fragile safety barrier for the thousands of workers now striving to ramp up production from 17-billion-barrel supergiant Rumaila and the other massive fields surrounding Basra.

There was no protection for six de-miners killed recently when a pile of recovered mines and old ordnance exploded.

"The demining workers, along with Iraqi army officers, ignited a fuse to detonate a land mine pile close to Rumaila North, but nothing happened. When the team went back to check, the pile exploded," said a Basra oil police investigator.

The threat of landmines extends far beyond the small army of workers now trying to clear the southern oilfields. The United Nations Development Programme says mines caused 14,000 casualties in Iraq between 1991 and 2007. More than half died from their wounds.

MINES BY THE MILLIONS

The environment ministry estimates that 25 million landmines are scattered around Iraq, many along the border with Iran, a legacy of the 1980-88 war between neighbors that killed a million people. UNICEF puts the number of anti-personnel mines around 20 million, along with 50 million cluster bombs.

Mines can block developers from sinking new wells in promising areas and building pipelines and other infrastructure needed to fulfill Iraq's ambitious goal of ramping up capacity to 12 million barrels per day by 2017, a figure that would rival top global producer Saudi Arabia.

Iraq's current production is 2.9 million bpd.

Many of the mines are deeply buried in the sand after so many years in place, and removal efforts have delayed plans to sink wells, notably at 12.9-billion-barrel supergiant West Qurna Phase Two, being developed by Russia's LUKOIL and Norway's Statoil, said a report by the state-run South Oil Company.

"Landmines are buried to around three meters, and that makes it difficult to spot them," the report said. "Landmines and unexploded ordnance have cause a delay in developing some fields and the preparation of drilling pads, as at West Qurna 2 and other border fields like Fakka and Badra."

The international companies investing billions of dollars in Iraq's lucrative fields have hired demining companies to clear them, and under their service contracts with Baghdad, Iraq must repay firms for the considerable cost.

Arab Gulf Co. was hired to demine Rumaila, West Qurna, Zubair and Badra. Some of its workers are Saddam-era army officers with demining experience.

Most of the landmines around oil production facilities in the south were planted by Saddam's army in the 1980s to prevent Iranian attacks on key oil infrastructure.

"Until now we have managed to defuse around 8,900 landmines and unexploded ordnance from Rumaila North and South ... we have cleared around 45 million square meter of Rumaila," said Nawaf Abdulla, head of operations at Arab Gulf. "Our contract with BP covers 125 million square meters."

"Decades have passed and lifting landmines becomes nearly impossible. We have to detonate mines at the location as a last resort," he said.

DREAM OF BRIDGES, MALLS, HOMES

Under its economic development plan, Iraq aims to attract $86 billion in investment by 2014 as it tries to rebuild more than eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Authorities in Basra, one of Iraq's largest cities and the hub of oil production and exports, say mines are hampering billions of dollars worth of development projects.

"We have ambitious plans to revive the eastern part of the city, building new bridges, residential complexes and markets, but landmines from the Iraq-Iran war are discouraging foreign investors from coming here," said Haider Ali, the Basra investment office spokesman.

Located about 420 km (260 miles) south of Baghdad, Basra has been relatively peaceful in recent years while many areas battle a stubborn Sunni insurgency and Shi'ite militias responsible for scores of bombings and other attacks each month.

But the city saw fierce fighting in 2008 when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the Iraqi army to crush Shi'ite militias and criminal gangs. Now Basra is focused on reconstruction.

In the eastern Basra district of Shatt al-Arab, Mayor Haider al-Ibadi has been trying to lure investors to build housing and entertainment areas.

"Investors are not ready to risk billions of dollars in a land mine area," said Ibadi. "If we could overcome this issue, billions in investments could be secured for this area."

(Writing by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Jim Loney and Richard Balmforth)

=============== UPDATE 1-Petrofac teams up with Schlumberger for big projects Thu, Jan 05 03:00 AM EST * Says tie-up will enable it to work on larger scale projects LONDON, JAN 5 - British energy services firm Petrofac said it will team up with Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services company, to enable it to bid for bigger projects with national oil companies and other firms. DEALTALK-Under Fu, Sinopec M&A machine overtakes Exxon, BP Thu, Jan 05 02:34 AM EST * Sinopec has racked up deals worth $10.4 bln since June * Most acquisitive energy major in past 6 years ============== CORRECTED-BRIEF-Guide Exploration to buy certain natural gas properties Wed, Jan 04 17:06 PM EST - Jan 4 (Reuters) - Guide Exploration Ltd : * Announces agreement to purchase long life natural gas properties and $36.6 million bought deal equity financing * Deal for $61.5 million * The properties are currently producing approximately 20 mmcf/d of sweet natural gas (3,330 boe/d) * Says acquired properties are accretive on both a production and reserves per share basis * Acquisition will be funded by bought deal equity financing of $36.6 mln,co's credit facilities * Says acquired properties are expected to be accretive, on a cash flow per share basis, in 2012 * Says based on field production report estimates, 2011 exit production rate was approximately 12,000 boe/d * Says average 2012 production is expected to range from 15,800 to 16,600 boe/d

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