Oil production at Iraqi Kurdistan's largest-producing oilfield is set to rise to as much as 140,000 b/d by the end of the month

Oil production at Iraqi Kurdistan's largest-producing field is set to rise to as much as 140,000 b/d by the end of August despite the Islamic State’s advances into the region, the General Manager of Taq Taq Operating Company (TTOPCO), Onder Tekeli, said on 15 August.

Taq Taq Oil Field is jointly owned by the KRG (20%) and TTOPCO (80%) which is a joint venture between the Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy (55%) and Sinopec’s Addax Petroleum (45%) subsidiary. Tekeli stated "We have a target to ramp up production towards 140,000 b/d and I believe we would achieve this by the end of the month."

Radical Sunni militants of the Islamic State last week advanced to within a half hour's drive of Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region and a hub for IOCs, before U.S. military air strikes thwarted their advance.

Several IOCs, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, operating in the previously stable Kurdish controlled region have evacuated all non-essential staff while other smaller producers, such as Afren and Taqa, have suspended operations, as reported here on 11 August.

In spite of KRG-based IOCs seeing their shares fluctuate, in a manner reflecting the Kurdish forces as they retreat and regain ground, there has been little impact on the overall oil output of the region. According to company estimates, production has only been cut by 5,000 b/d, although fighting between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Islamic State fighters in the environs of Erbil have kept firms and investors on edge.

Currently unaffected by the Islamic State’s advances, however, Tekeli insists that morale at the Taq Taq oil field, 40km (25 miles) southeast of Erbil, remains high: "The worries started about the IS (Islamic State) fighters when they attacked the Makhmour camp. But we have not stopped working and our local staffers have expressed their commitment to us.”  Makhmour to the southwest of Erbil was the closes the fighting got to the capital last week.

Ozan Guler, production superintendent, stated that in order to increase Taq Taq oil field production beyond 140,000 bpd TTOPCO will set up three well-site production facilities to boost output: "We already have the potential to boost production up to 140,000 b/dd in our wells ... We will be setting up these new facilities whose start-up period is about 10 days."

Genel Energy, which operates the Taq Taq and Tawke oilfields in Kurdistan, has said it has evacuated non-core personnel from fields that are not producing oil. Last week it said that production was still ongoing at the two fields and it was averaging a combined 230,000 b/d.

Genel's shares fell by almost a quarter in early August as Islamic State forces advanced towards Erbil, but have since rebounded by around 12%.

At the end of trading, 15 August, they were up almost 2% at £824 (US$1,378.10). Although the rebound has slowed, Genel's shares are currently up 0.5% at £829.50 (US$1386.97).

(£1 = US$1.67).

For more news and expert analysis about Iraq, please see Iraq Focus.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Nigeria and Cameroon agree on joint oil exploration in Bakassi region

Nigeria and Cameroon have initiated talks to jointly exploit oil overlapping borders around the Bakassi peninsula, chief mediators of both countries told Dow Jones Newswire on Friday 11th March.

The decision to begin joint oil exploration was made at a meeting of a joint commission of the two countries set up by the UN following the 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the Bakassi peninsula.

After years of dispute, Cameroon took Nigeria to the ICJ in 1994 over various territorial issues including that of the Bakassi region. Nigeria argued that the peninsula should be awarded to it because of its 'historical claim'. Nigeria had been administering the peninsula and most of its inhabitants were Nigerian fishermen and their families.

Despite this, the Court ruled in 2002 that the peninsula belonged to Cameroon based largely on early twentieth century Anglo-German correspondence which established that the boundary lay to the west of the peninsula.

The ruling was not easily accepted by many within Nigeria, but in 2008, they ceded the peninsula to Cameroon. A commission was established to demarcate the border between the two countries as per the ICJ ruling and it appears that good progress is being made.

Cameroon's chief negotiator, the country's Vice Premier Ali Ahmadou, said: "Work is complete on our maritime demarcation, but this is not the case with exploitation of the oil wells crossing the borders. This is an important issue which we've to pursue and reach a level of agreement for joint exploitation of the oil reserves by our two countries."

The chief Nigerian negotiator, Prince Bola Ajibola, sounded positive on the agreement reached. "This time around, there's been cooperation and good understanding between our two countries to come together and jointly exploit the hydrocarbons deposits that we've on our common borders.

The exploited hydrocarbons will be for the mutual benefits of both of us,” said Ajibola, adding "we think such exploitation will become faster, cheaper and easier when both of us have one company to do the operations."

Canadian exploration company, Addax Petroleum, has been tipped to do the cross border oil drilling. The Dow Jones Newswire quoted an unnamed Cameroonian official familiar with the negotiations as saying, "Addax Petroleum is likely to do the crossborder oil drilling for us and our brotherly nation, Nigeria. You know, Addax operates both in Cameroon and Nigeria and knows the territory very well."

Exploration is likely to start this year.

Sources: Dow Jones Newswire, Wall Street Journal, AllAfrica

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Three crewmen kidnapped off Nigerian coast

Three French crewmen have been kidnapped from a ship in an oil field off the Nigerian cost. The marine company Bourbon said the ship was attacked by pirates in speedboats on Tuesday, 21st September. The other 13 crew members were unharmed.

So far, there have been no ransom demands and no one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The news comes shortly after reports of five French citizens abducted from a uranium mine in the Niger region on Thursday, 16th September.

It is not yet clear where the attack took place but Bourbon has said the crew were working in an oilfield owned by Addax Petroleum. The company's offshore wells sit about 60km south of the city of Calabar on the eastern edge of the Niger Delta.

"We are fully mobilised to obtain their liberation as soon as we can in Paris and in Abuja with our embassy and with the Nigerian authorities," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.

Source: BBC News

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.