Iraq: Shortfall in Kurdish exports

The Oil Ministry announced this month that the KRG is not meeting its export target of 175,000 b/d. The director of Somo, the state oil marketing board, Falah Al-Ameri, told the Iraqi media that the Kurds hadn't been able to export more than 65,000 b/d. He also asserted that despite Norwegian company DNO expecting production to increase in the Tawke field, there was no way the Kurds would be able to meet such a high target.

Baghdad's criticisms are a little rich, given that the central authorities have done almost everything in their powers over the past few years to make the KRG's export of its crude as difficult as possible. The criticisms have been taken as another bid by Baghdad to have a dig at Erbil.

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

© 2012 Menas Associates

Iran discovers a new onshore natural gas field

Iran's Oil Minister Masoud Mir Kazemi has announced a new onshore natural gas discovery in the country's southern region. The newly discovered oil field is estimated to hold around 9.1 trillion cubic feet of gas and 7.7 million barrels of gas condensate.

The gas field, east of Assalouyeh, is near the South Pars gas complex, and is thought to contain 80 per cent of recoverable reserves which could equate to as much as 7.4 trillion cubic feet of gas.

"The in-situ capacity of the gas field is 260 billion cubic meters and 80 percent of its reserves can be exploited," said Mir Kazemi.

Iran has the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia. Its South Pars field in the Gulf, which it shares with Qatar, holds around 14 trillion cubic metres of gas equal to eight percent of the world's reserves.

In related news, Mir Kazemi held a press conference on Friday 14th January to say that the price of $100 per oil barrel was appropriate and that OPEC did not “need to hold an emergency meeting over the price issue”.

Sources: UPI, Xinhua, AFP, Zawya, Hamsayeh

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

Desire Petroleum discovery contains mostly water, not oil

Desire Petroleum has said that the key drilling prospect off the Falkland Islands contained mostly water, not oil. Last week, the company said that it was optimistic that the well contained hydrocarbons, but further tests of the Rachel North well in the North Falkland basin contained mostly water.

Upon first inspection, Desire Petroleum believed it had made the only second ever oil discovery of the North Falkland basin. The first was made by Rockhopper at its Sea Lion prospect in May.

Desire Petroleum released a statement last week saying, "Preliminary data collected indicate that this well is an oil discovery.” But on Monday 6th December, the company said that “sampling of the main sand has shown that the hydrocarbons are residual and that the mobile fluid is water,” further adding that the well will "be plugged and abandoned".

Source: BBC News

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